Why did the major Western powers fail to resolve the War of Dissolution in Yugoslavia? Why did the killing continue, even as diplomats, UN peacekeepers, and world leaders desperately negotiated agreements? James Gow evaluates the range of attempts to find a workable peace and identifies four factors that helped subvert the peace process: bad timing, bad judgment, poor cohesion, and above all, the absence of political will, especially concerning the use of force.

Gow analyzes the individual perspectives and roles of major states in Europe after the Cold War - Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, and the United States - all of which constituted the Contact Group attempting to establish a unified international policy toward the war.

Analysts, policymakers, scholars, and general readers need to understand the world's response to Yugoslavia's bloody collapse to build effective policies and prevent future wars in the Balkans. At a time when the failure of cooperation among Western powers shatters faith in the UN, NATO, and the EC to deal with such crises, this book's accessible, balanced perspective provides essential guidance.