"The book is based on extensive research, which contributed to and benefited from the author's work as an expert adviser and expert witness for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, using a variety of sources including interviews, official documentation, and material he introduced into evidence at the Tribunal. Its point of departure is the importance of this empirical material to the need legally to establish jurisdiction before evidence of specific crimes can be considered in cases at The Hague tribunal, and of the conceptual distinction between acts of war on the one hand, and war crimes and crimes against humanity on the other. James Gow argues that the Serbian strategy at the heart of the war was in essence criminal - a strategy of war crimes. Despite this, an understanding of the strategic context might even, controversially, mitigate charges against the accused in some cases."--Jacket.