Conversations with Milosevic

by Ivor Roberts

Overview

Conversations with Miloševic is a firsthand portrayal of the so-called Butcher of the Balkans, the Serbian president whose ambitions sparked the Bosnian conflict. At its heart the book is a portrait of an autocrat who rode the tiger of nationalism to serve his own ends and to promote those who furthered his agenda. The architect of ethnic cleansing in modern Europe, Slobodan Miloševic created and sponsored two Frankenstein’s monsters, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadžic, who were also indicted for war crimes.

Through these personalities, diplomat and political advisor Ivor Roberts analyzes the unfolding of the Kosovo conflict, which directly sowed the seeds of radicalization in Europe today. He contends that this conflict later provided a false template for the Bush/Blair administrations’ illegal invasion of Iraq: regime change under the guise of a humanitarian war. He further investigates how international recognition of Kosovoin the years after the conflict in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions set a disastrous precedent for the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820349435
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	07/01/2016
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

SIR IVOR ROBERTS was the president of Trinity College, University of Oxford, 2006-17. He worked in the British Diplomatic Service for nearly forty years. Among his many accomplishments as a diplomat he served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Office’s Press Department and later its Head of Counter-Terrorism. He served as the British Ambassador at Belgrade during the Bosnian civil war and the descent into war in Kosovo. He was posted as Ambassador to Ireland, immediately following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. After serving as Ambassador to Italy, Roberts retired from the Diplomatic Service in 2006 he served as Chairman of the British School of Archaeology and Fine Arts at Rome from 2007 to 2012 and is Chair of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

SIR IVOR ROBERTS was the president of Trinity College, University of Oxford, 2006-17. He worked in the British Diplomatic Service for nearly forty years. Among his many accomplishments as a diplomat he served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Office’s Press Department and later its Head of Counter-Terrorism. He served as the British Ambassador at Belgrade during the Bosnian civil war and the descent into war in Kosovo. He was posted as Ambassador to Ireland, immediately following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. After serving as Ambassador to Italy, Roberts retired from the Diplomatic Service in 2006 he served as Chairman of the British School of Archaeology and Fine Arts at Rome from 2007 to 2012 and is Chair of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Dramatis Personae xv

Chronology xxiii

Maps xxviii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Pyromaniac Fireman 24

Chapter 2 Early Belgrade Days 33

Chapter 3 Close Encounter with the Bosnian Serbs: The Three Ks 39

Chapter 4 A First Private Meeting with Miloševic 46

Chapter 5 Meeting General Mladic 52

Chapter 6 Point Man for the Contact Group 58

Chapter 7 The UN Hostage Crisis 65

Chapter 8 Srebrenica 70

Chapter 9 The End of the Krajina Serbs and NATO Bombing 75

Chapter 10 Dayton from the Sidelines 79

Chapter 11 Independent Media and the Opposition 82

Chapter 12 The High Representative's Delegate 91

Chapter 13 The Winter of Discontent 98

Chapter 14 Bildt's Farewell and the B92 Saga 109

Chapter 15 Kosovo 113

Chapter 16 Final Days 127

Chapter 17 Secret Emissary 136

Chapter 18 Aftermath 146

Conclusions 152

Notes 157

Suggested Further Reading 165

Index 167

Editorial Reviews

A valuable book, and captures very well the bizarre, lawless atmosphere of Miloševic’s and the Serb Arkan’s paramilitary city.

James Pettifer

This is not only a truly valuable addition to the literature on the breakup of Yugoslavia, it is also an incredibly interesting read. Sir Ivor Roberts was one of the few Western officials with sustained close-up interaction with Miloševic, as well as with other leading Serbian and international personalities involved at the time. It is a truly fascinating account of Roberts’s time in Belgrade, full of anecdotes and character portraits.

James Ker-Lindsay

This intriguing and informative book will serve not only as an explanation of why Yugoslavia disintegrated, and why it did so with such violence, but it will also open areas of debate on those processes which will be of interest and value to historians, as well as students of politics and international relations.

Richard Crampton