A Strategy of ‘Circumvention’: American Policy Towards the Yugoslav Crisis

US decisions in the Yugoslav conflict have reflected a strategy of ‘circumvention’, calling on allies and international organizations to manage the crisis. The strategy itself emanated from a calculated form of procrastination, which rested on two pillars: first (in a passive sense), the rejection of any unilateral commitment to political and military solutions in the former Yugoslavia; secondly (in an active sense), the recognition that any spill-over from the conflict is equally unacceptable. Spill-overs are defined geographically and according to the intensity of military clashes; the latter are themselves defined by the pressures of public opinion, the media, allies or international organizations calling for a more pro-active, multilateral policy.