The Volatile Powder Keg: Balkan Security After the Cold War

by F. Stephen Larrabee

In this work, regional specialists and European security analysts unite in a comprehensive analysis of changes in the Balkans and the security dilemmas they present to Western policy. Special attention is given to the roles that NATO, the European Community, and the Western Economic Union will play in the future. It includes a revealing discussion of how and why the Yugoslav Federation collapsed and what the future holds for that embattled area. Part One focuses on the problems of domestic change in the Balkans, including the difficulties of transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. Part Two is devoted to regional security problems, and Part Three examines the role of external actors and institutions in enhancing Balkan security.

346 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 1994

About the author

F. Stephen Larrabee is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, its Distinguished Chair Emeritus in European Security, and a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty.

Before joining RAND, Larrabee served as vice president and director of studies of the Institute of East–West Security Studies in New York from 1983 to 1989, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence (1989–1990). From 1978 to 1981, he served on the U.S. National Security Council staff in the White House as a specialist on Soviet–East European affairs and East-West political-military relations.

Larrabee's RAND monographs include Troubled Partnership: U.S.-Turkish Relations in an Era of Global Geopolitical Change (2010); Turkey as a U.S. Security Partner (2008); The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey (with Angel Rabasa, 2008); and Encouraging Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in Ukraine (with Keith Crane, 2007). His articles include "Arming Europe," in The National Interest (with Seth G. Jones, Winter 2005–2006); and "ESDP and NATO: Assuring Complementarity," in The International Spectator (January–March 2004).

In addition, Larrabee is the coauthor (with Julian Lindley-French) of Revitalizing the Transatlantic Security Partnership: An Agenda for Action (RAND/Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2008); the editor of The Volatile Powder Keg: Balkan Security After the Cold War (American University Press, 1994); and coeditor (with Robert Blackwill) of Conventional Arms Control and East-West Security (Duke University Press, 1989).

Larrabee has taught at Columbia, Cornell, New York, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and The George Washington universities, and at the University of Southern California. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.