Shadows across the Path 445year, it went a long step further, by authorizing member states to use armed
force— or “all necessary means” in the standard diplomatic euphemism— to
overthrow (or, more diplomatically, “to facilitate the departure” of) the mil-
itary rulers. In terms of high drama, it was no match for the deposition of
Emperor Frederick II by Pope Innocent IV in 1245, but it marked the fi rst
occasion in which an international or ga ni za tion explicitly instigated a
change of regime. In the event, an actual invasion of Haiti by the UN-
supported force did not prove necessary. At the last moment before the ar-
rival of the force, the military government agreed to surrender power.
Th e end of the Cold War was not, however, an altogether peaceful aff air.
In Yugo slavia, it brought civil wars, fi rst in Croatia (in 1991– 92) and then in
Bosnia (1992– 95). Th ese struggles were marked by massive civilian casual-
ties and displacements (the ominous expression “ethnic cleansing” entered
the world po liti cal vocabulary at this time). Th e single most notorious event
was a massacre of some eight thousand people near the town of Srebrenica
in Bosnia in 1995. Th e World Court became involved when two claims were
brought before it for violations of the Genocide Convention— the fi rst ones
since its draft ing in 1948.
Th e fi rst of the claims was by Bosnia against Serbia, chiefl y regarding the
massacre at Srebrenica. Th e Court’s ruling, handed down in 2007, held the
Srebrenica killings to have been an act of genocide. It also held that Serbia
had violated the convention— but only in the somewhat restricted sense of
having failed to “prevent and punish” the genocide in Srebrenica. It was
exonerated of the more serious charge: of having actually instigated the
atrocity as a matter of offi cial policy. Th e other claim was also against Ser-
bia, this time by Croatia, which alleged that the Serbian government had
orchestrated ethnic cleansing and large- scale destruction in the Knin region
of Croatia in 1995. As of 2013, the Croatian case (together with counter-
claims by Serbia) was still in pro cess.
Th e Proliferation of Tribunals
It was not only in the World Court that international legal business picked
up sharply aft er 1980. One of the clearest signs of the international-law re-
nais sance was a steep increase in the number of tribunals that were estab-
lished in a variety of specialized fi elds. One of these areas was economic re-
lations. Th ere was a dispute-settlement mechanism associated with the