This volume investigates the roots of the current conflict in the former Yugoslavia, as they were shaped and transformed during the communist period. The contributors provide a better understanding of the success and failures of the Yugoslav socialist state as well as the reasons for its violent demise.

The outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia brought issues of South Slav history and politics into the forefront of international diplomacy and the news media. Images of destruction and starvation in this fractured nation have captured the attention of policymakers and observers of foreign affairs. Melissa K. Bokovoy, Jill A. Irvine, and Carol S. Lilly have drawn together a group of scholars to investigate the roots of the current conflict as they were shaped and transformed during the communist period. United by their common focus on the evolving relationship between state and society, the writers assembled in State-Society Relations in Yugoslavia, 1945-1992 provide a better understanding of the successes and failures of the Yugoslav socialist state as well as the reasons for its violent demise.