ASSIGNMENT 1-POLSC 440 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

ASSIGNMENT 1-POLSC 440 - Essay Example The constituent states of Yugoslavia on the other hand were determined to ensure that they pursued their own nationalist agenda through the acquisition of complete independence from Belgrade. Many of the individuals in these states felt that they were marginalized in the Serb dominated Yugoslavia and wanted to ensure that their own interests were protected and to achieve this, they all wished to have their own independence. The war which developed as a result, especially after the coming to power of Slobodan Milosevic as the Yugoslav president, was extremely complex with many of those involved included the members of various ethnic groups either making alliances or fighting against each other to ensure that they achieved their aims and objectives, however obscure they were. When these wars finally came to an end in the late 1990s, they left the successor states of Yugoslavia in dire economic hardships from which it took them years to recover. There is wide agreement, however, that th e cause of the Yugoslav war was as a result of the development of Serbian nationalism in a state which was ethnically diverse hence the wars of self-determination that resulted. One would suggest that it was the Serbian religious mythology, extreme nationalism, and racist theories which contributed to the occurrence of the war in Yugoslavia. ... The Serbians were the dominant people within the Yugoslav federation and if this state were to collapse, then they would be the biggest losers since their influence over the other ethnic groups in the federation. After Slobodan Milosevic became the Serb leader and by default the leader of the Yugoslav federation in 1987 after a difficult struggle against more powerful member of his party, he encouraged Serb nationalism not only in Serbia but also in the other states in which large Serb communities lived (Vladisavljevic 183). When Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 these three states came to be recognized at the international level and this did not sit well with the government in Belgrade. In the same year as these states declared their independence, there followed fierce fighting between the mainly Serb Yugoslavian army and Croatia in Belgrade’s attempt to hang on to some of the territories in Croatia and when this was not successful , it turned its attention to territory in Bosnia. A sign of the escalation of war took place in 1992 when the Serb army started shelling the National Library of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo and in the process, over a million books, more than a hundred thousand manuscripts and rare books, and centuries of historical records were destroyed. Many historians who have studied this period consider this move to have been a systematic campaign of cultural eradication. In one of the events that took place during the war, Serb troops and paramilitary units descended on the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and began shelling it besieging civilians within it. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the town which consisted of French

The cooling off period Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The cooling off period - Assignment Example The subsequent paragraphs will explore and define each category into details with an aim of distinguishing them from one another, Mass murderers refer to individuals who kill four or more people in one location at a particular time. It could be a few minutes or last several days but the location remains the same. Most of this type of killers do end up committing suicide or are killed by the police. Mass murders are influenced by several factors. Mass killing can result when the killers choose a specific target which they think is causing them stress and therefore execute killings to satisfy their ego. It could also take another form where the killers attack targets that have no connection with them but belongs to groups the killer dislikes. It has also been observed that most mass killings are motivated by the existence of some hatred between assailants and their victims which is provoked by a specific event that sparks the killings. Spree murderers or killers on the other hand refer to those who kill two or more victims in more than one location in a fairly rapid succession. Spree killings tend to be rare and the spree killing teams consist of a submissive lover and a dominant leader. The occurrence of their murders in separate locations is considered a single event because it lacks a cooling off period. Mass and spree murderer are actually rare but it is believed that strict gun controls may help prevent some incidences of the would-be spree or mass killings. But this measure is unlikely to control serial killing. Serial killer or murderer refers to a person who has killed three or more persons, the murders have taken place in three or more separate locations at different times and has been involved or engaged in an emotional cooling off period between the murders. It is estimated that serial killing alone has contributed to 20% of the murders in the United States. Four subtypes of serial