ABSTRACT
From the end of the Greek Civil War in 1949 until 1989, Southeastern Europe would enjoy a period of domestic and international peace behind the borders as shown in Map 41.1, unprecedented for the region in modern times. The chapters in Part VII examine the transitions in regimes and societies that accompanied a shifting set of Cold War divisions. The divisions also helped to keep the peace. They had however become irrelevant in the last years before the collapse of the Communist regimes and the warfare and turmoil that followed from 1989 forward. An Epilogue introduces the reader to the start of a new era whose course is not yet clear. The chapters below therefore end before the upheavals from late 1989 to 1991 changed all the region’s governments and societies.
