Serbia stood at the center of the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart during the 1990s, and its government under Slobodan Milošević faced international isolation and, eventually, a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 over the crackdown in Kosovo. Domestic opposition to Milošević grew steadily through the decade, culminating in mass protests that forced him from power after disputed elections in October 2000.
In the years since, Serbia has worked to rebuild its international standing and pursue integration with the European Union, even as its relationship with Kosovo, whose independence Belgrade has never recognized, continues to complicate that process. Questions surrounding accountability for wartime abuses, media freedom, and the durability of democratic institutions have remained recurring themes in the country’s post-Milošević transition.