The UN's response to the Yugoslav Crisis: turning the UN charter on its head

While many critics argue that the United Nations did not act effectively during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, it is a contention of this article that the engagement was one of the most constructive in the organization's history considering that the UN transformed the state itself, not only helped resolve the conflicts. This was achieved through supporting and endorsing actions taken by regional actors who took the lead in shaping the response to the Yugoslav crisis well before the conflicts internationalized. It is concluded that the involvement was neither neutral nor impartial. The UN was not consistently losing its neutrality during the conflicts, which makes the intervention sui generis in character. The engagement was ad hoc and full of inconsistencies, because of which it is not possible to discern a newly emerging rule of international law relating to the issues that were at the core of the crisis: the right of self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity.