The Balkans, for all their beauty, varied landscapes, and wonderfully inviting people, have had a deeply troubled history. No more than 20 years ago, the city of Vukovar in Croatia was being pounded into rubble by the guns of paramilitaries and the tanks of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), working on behalf of the disintegrating Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which once spanned these scarred lands. Sarajevo, the enchanting capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was on fire and the United Nations’ “protection” it was receiving never once prevented the continual encirclement and besieging of the city.