Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Spring 4-6-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

April 2026

Department

History

College Granting Degree

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Department Granting Degree

Historia

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Nicole Anslover

Abstract

This thesis argues that the United States systematically worked to destabilize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and initiate regime change through economic sanctions, propaganda campaigns, funding of political opposition movements, and the facilitation of NATO bombing campaigns. Through an examination of recently declassified U.S. government documents, National Security Council briefings, and diplomatic correspondence, a more complicated reality of U.S. involvement in Yugoslavia emerges. Evidence reveals that the Clinton Administration leveraged the real humanitarian crisis in Kosovo to advance post-Cold War strategic interests, particularly the political and economic unification of Europe under NATO. Organized into three thematic chapters: Militaristic Involvement, Economic Involvement, and Politics and Propaganda, this thesis demonstrates that U.S. involvement extended far beyond the widely recognized eleven-week bombing campaign. U.S. involvement included covert information operations, CIA-backed opposition groups, economic warfare, and deliberate infrastructure destruction. The cumulative effect of U.S. and NATO efforts significantly accelerated Yugoslavia's violent dissolution and its implications remain relevant to understanding U.S. foreign policy, NATO’s evolving geopolitical role, and the use of humanitarian crises to advance policy objectives.

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