Yugoslavia, breakup and war in 469 U.S Marines set up a roadblock to check for weapons near the village of Koretin, Kosovo Units were deployed as an enabling force for KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in the Balkan region of Yugoslavia Instead, there is a complex array of economic, cultural, and systemic factors Many of these factors can be traced to the federal design imposed on the state by Marshal Tito (Josip Broz), which began to unravel soon after his death The April 1981 Albanian riots in Kosovo marked a turning point in the history of the Yugoslav state, which saw an escalation in interethnic tensions during the 1980s These were underpinned by regional economic disparities Gradually, economic nationalism impacted political developments The ethnically based structure of the federation ensured that the political elites of individual republics relied on the support of their respective republics Political programs, therefore, were increasingly influenced by nationalist agendas Slobodan MiloŠeviC´ These developments would not have sufficed to take Yugoslavia down the path of intercommunal violence had it not been for the agency of individual republican leaders Most commentators agree that it was the rise to power in Serbia of Slobodan Miloševic´ that led to war His manipulation of Serb nationalist sentiments allowed him to become president of Serbia in 1989 Under Miloševic´’s leadership the Serbian parliament amended the constitution of the republic in March 1989 The provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina lost their autonomy In December 1990 Miloševic´ ordered the National Bank of Yugoslavia to allocate unauthorized credits to Serbian-owned enterprises, which both triggered hyperinflation and stiffened the resolve of other republics to secede from Yugoslavia Miloševic´’s chauvinistic rhetoric and policies pushed the country into war From April to December 1990 all republics held multiparty elections The overall success of nationalist formations at the ballot box precipitated the impasse that Yugoslavia reached in 1991 In October 1990 Slovenia and Croatia tabled a formal proposal for the