Author Description

About the Author Dr. Marc Weller is a Reader in International Law and International Relations in the University of Cambridge, the Director of the European Center for Minority Issues, a Fellow of Hughes Hall and a Fellow of the Lauterpacht Center for International Law. He is also the Director of the CambridgeCarnegie Project on the Settlement of Self-determination Disputes. He has been active as a legal advisor in relation to most aspects of the Yugoslav conflict, and in many other international peace settlements. His most recent publications include Universal Minority Rights (Oxford University Press2007), Contested Statehood: the International Administration of Kosovo's Struggle for Independence (Oxford University Press, 2008), Settling Self-determination Disputes (Nijhoff 2008), Peace Lost (Nijhoff 2008) and The Future of International Law (Polity 2009). Product Description The Yugoslav crisis brought armed conflict to the heart of Europe. It involved the dissolution of a state, internal armed conflict and external armed intervention, ethnic cleansing and probable genocide on a scale not seen since the second World War. These developments created complexchallenges of state recognition, peace-keeping and peace enforcement, and humanitarian intervention. This book investigates the international responses to these developments from the beginning of the crisis in 1988 to its provisional termination with the independence of Kosovo in 2008. The bookcritically examines the application of diplomatic and international legal tools to the dramatic events in the former Yugoslavia, and assesses the performance of the international agencies and governments involved. Moreover, it considers the impact of the episode on our understanding of the legalrules governing self-determination and secession, internal armed conflict and external intervention.