Sumantra Bose The political elite that was to preside over the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1990-91 did not have shared memories of a historic ordeal to bind them together, while they had every incentive to capitulate to the more parochial loyalties of a Serb, Croat or Slovene national identity in order to preserve and consolidate their own political power. In this regard, the bellicose posturing of the Serbian leadership of Slobodan Milosevic bears a great deal of culpability for precipitating the current catastrophe.