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Like other landmark historic events, the war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia has been explained by three types of theories: mythological, scientific, & commonsensical, the latter making use of certain pseudoscientific arguments. The author claims that the theory blaming the media in all six republics of the former Yugoslavia for the outbreak of the war belongs to the latter type. The empirical data gathered on the eve of the war show that ethnic tolerance was highest in the republics later struck by the war: Bosnia & Herzegovina & Croatia. The author provides an alternative explanation of the role of the media in paving the way for the war. Only in Serbia did mass media, in the circumstances of the prevailing authoritarian orientation of the population before the war, aid the aggressive nationalist leadership in political mobilization, which aroused in the Serbian people a feeling of imperilment & a sense of omnipotence. After the outbreak of the war in Croatia & Bosnia & Herzegovina, the media have been only one of the elements in an ever-expanding spiral of hatred & violence. 2 Tables, 10 References. Adapted from the source document.