This thesis began as an attempt to understand why the war in Bosnia was allowed to unfold in the fashion it did. Why in spite of the widespread reports of genocide and ethnic cleansing (carried out in this bloody war) did we in the West stand by and do nothing? My initial questions with respect to this revolved around whether or not we had forgotten the lessons learned from the Second World War or had we--Western society--simply become void of all sense of morality? Did we not care about what was going on in Bosnia because of the apparent lack of an immediate impact this would have on our lives? While not denying the validity of the last two points (as will be shown later in this thesis) the answers to my initial questions would prove to be much more complex and evolve the scope of this project tremendously. Guided by the principles developed by Kenneth Waltz in his book Theory of International Politics an attempt at answering these questions is provided. This thesis is an effort to illustrate that it is not merely coincidence that the war in Bosnia unfolded on the heels of the unraveling of the Soviet Empire. Rather, by using the war in Bosnia as a case in point, this thesis is an attempt to illustrate that events such as the conflict in Bosnia are consequences of the breakdown of the bipolar confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Furthermore, it is also an attempt to point out that events such as Bosnia can be expected more frequently unless the leadership (in the international system) the bipolar structure demanded is restored.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/4325 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Donlan, Brian James. |
| Contributors | Sjolander, C. Turenne, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 98 p. |
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