The Western European Union and the Early Days of the Yugoslav Crisis (1989-1991)

Abstract

This article draws on the proceeding and the documents of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) to account for how the unfolding crisis in Yugoslavia influenced debates on defence and security within the organization. While the literature has rightly pointed out that neither the WEU nor the European Community were successful in addressing the crisis and in preventing the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the following fighting, there is a gap regarding the analysis of the activities on which the Assembly embarked in the early days of the political crisis. This article attempts at filling the identified gap, and suggests that before 1992 the events in Yugoslavia did not influence to any relevant extent WEU Assembly debates, mainly due to other concomitant issues, diverse interests at stake and different positions between governments. This affected the WEU’s capacity to address the crisis and to play a more relevant role within European defence and security arrangements. The article resorts to the WEU’s archival material held at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU).