Serbia - Svetozar Stojanovic

After a decade of brutal conflict, "ethnic cleansing," countless atrocities, and a prolonged NATO bombing campaign, it seems almost miraculous that the regime of Slobodan Milosevi? was overthrown peacefully in the October 2000 democratic revolution. What factors led to Milosevi?'s political demise and how were the supporters of democratic reform finally able to wrest control from him? Serbian scholar Svetozar Stojanovi?, a longtime critic of Milosevi? and a protagonist in the Serbian democratic revolution, combines objective analysis and a personal account in this illuminating discussion of recent events in the former Yugoslavia.

Stojanovi? explains the complex factors that led to the rise and fall of Milosevi?. He criticizes the West for its role in the disintegration of Yugoslavia, especially for its misguided reliance on Milosevi? for years before the final breakdown of relations in 1999. He explores the meaning of such concepts as nation and nationalism, and launches such new concepts as "civic nationalism" and "deep political cartography."

Moving beyond the internal problems of Yugoslavia, Stojanovi? concludes with a penetrating examination of the postcommunist "new world order." For this purpose he creates original concepts such as "post-postmodernism," "imagism," and "imagology." Far from ushering in "the end of history," the current era has revealed the ugly new realities of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, global environmental degradation, savage ethnic conflicts, and terrorism, all having potentially apocalyptic consequences. Stojanovi? compellingly demonstrates the need for world government to deal with these unprecedented threats. He emphasizes that in the 21st century the very survival of the human race must become the ultimate concern of all nations and the focus of both religious and secular humanist value systems.