Milosevic was elected leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in 1987, and then later became President of Serbia in 1990 on a wave of populist nationalism. In 1988 he cracked down on Albanian dissenters in Kosovo (a region in southern Serbia) who desired more independence. Milosevic suspended the Kosovo parliament and moved troops into the area, turning it into a police state.

Because Milosevic used nationalism as a way to stoke support for himself, other Yugoslav republics such as Slovenia and Croatia worried that Serbs living in their countries would respond to the idea of a "Greater Serbia". This worry has been identified as a leading cause of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia into independent states. For example, Slovenia and Croatia were the first states to declare independence in June 1991.

Milosevic eventually declared Serbia independent on 27 April, 1992. The new state comprised only two--Serbia and Montenegro--of the old Yugoslavia's six republics. It faced immediate hostility and sanctions from the international community.