The team went on to win in the final, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 to claim the nation's fourth Olympic gold in the competition.

CNN: March 2, 2012 -- Updated 1645 GMT (0045 HKT)

Slovenia may only have become independent from Yugoslavia in 1991, but this small nation of two million inhabitants has been making up for lost time.

BBC: Epicurean Slovenia makes its mark

"I don't believe that there was any kind of surrender because we are not ready and we will never be ready to surrender Kosovo as an integral part and spiritual cradle of the Yugoslavian nation, " Vladislav Jovanovic, Yugoslavia's charge d'affaires at the United Nations, told Associated Press Television News.

CNN: Kosovo

But although states may be blurring a little at the edges, it is only those in which the relationship between the state and its nation or nations is untenable, such as the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, where things break down.

ECONOMIST: Good fences

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has held his first meeting with foreign ministers from the six-nation Contact Group formed to tackle ongoing problems in the Balkans following the break-up of Yugoslavia.

CNN: U.S. joins Balkans peace mission

Less than 20 years ago, the fledgling nation of Croatia was in the throes of the bitter Croatian War of Independence as it declared sovereignty from Yugoslavia.

BBC: Croatia��s adventurous heart