On a Dangerous Learning Curve: Shifting Modalities and Lasting Consequences of US Interventions in the Yugoslav Conflict

This contribution explores the evolution of the doctrine and practice of humanitarian intervention by tracing its origins to shifting modalities of American involvement into the Yugoslav collapse in the 1990s. By detailing the stages of this shift, which moved from almost complete disengagement to full armed participation in less than a decade, the article aims to establish the chain of events, to explore the role historical analogies were playing in the process, and also to examine its wider context. The effects of this shift on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s relations with Russia is specifically scrutinized, as well as consequences for the contemporary misuse of the concept of humanitarian interventions.