In the early 1990s, the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the wars that followed triggered disputes among European governments and intense debates in parliaments, civil society organizations, and media outlets. Attempts to redraw political borders by force, as well as the scale of the violence, called into question fundamental norms of international politics. The project analyzes European – especially British and German – reactions to the developments in the (post-)Yugoslav space, examining how public and non-public interpretive struggles influenced policy-making processes. Individual case studies focus on the disputes over the recognition of Slovenia and Croatia and the establishment of the “International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.” In both cases, interpretive struggles over peace concepts and the future of Europe are scrutinized in order to discuss to what extent such struggles over meaning influenced political decision-making. The project is part of the research network “Conflicts. Meanings. Transitions”, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and aims to connect peace and conflict researchers in Bavaria.