Balkan Odyssey is David Owen's personal chronicle of the struggle to bring an end to the wars in the former Yugoslavia, wars marked by brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, ultranationalism, religious bigotry, and racism. It offers a rare, unvarnished look inside the realm of international diplomacy. Owen describes the consequences of the Clinton Administration's opposition to the Vance-Owen peace plan.

He recounts how other peace settlements were hindered by divisions between the United States, Europe, and Russia as well as the United Nations and NATO, and by the bad faith of warring leaders who believed they had more to gain through war than peace. Owen also gives an account of the NATO assault on Bosnian Serb positions and the latest attempts at reaching a settlement.

1. Written with candor and reason, Balkan Odyssey is a day-to-day account of the traps and tangles of diplomacy and the enduring dangers of policy that is dictated by rhetoric instead of reality. It is an essential work for understanding the gravest threat to world peace since the height of the Cold War.