No. 2 (2011): Twenty years since the disappearance of Yugoslavia

Balkania is once again published in its second issue thanks to the support of the Spanish Embassy in Belgrade. As a result of the good reception that the first issue experienced, by managing to bring together a large group of experts in Balkan studies, it was essential to guarantee its continuity and try to be increasingly ambitious. An initiative that will undoubtedly increase the dissemination of the magazine's contents is the publication of its digital version (www.balkania.es); In this way, the magazine gains presence, expansion and credibility and, in addition, offers the possibility of exponentially increasing the number of readers with a more modern and accessible proposal. There are still some objectives to meet, which satisfy the most demanding quality criteria; However, the path taken is the appropriate one. The good response from the public confirms this. It has resulted in new article proposals, both for this issue and the next, and good prospects for expanding the dissemination and networks in which Balkania is becoming integrated.

For this new issue we wanted to create a monograph on the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The dissolution of Yugoslavia continues to rage. Twenty years after Yugoslavia ceased to be part of the European world map, the Kosovo crisis, which some authors point out as the starting signal for regional problems, still deserves the attention of international public opinion today for its power. conflict potential. The Kosovar Albanian institutions approved a unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008, supported among others by the US, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, which was strongly opposed by Serbia, based on resolution 1244 (1999) of the United Nations Security Council, which provided autonomy to Kosovo, but within the borders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which would later legally succeed the Republic of Serbia. Following the ruling of the International Court of Justice on July 22, 2010, which ruled that the unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence was not illegal, Serbia went to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to defend its sovereign interests in Kosovo. vo, moment from which the dispute experiences a new political period where the Belgrade-Priština negotiations will be developed mainly under the protection of the EU, and the will of the Serbian government to enter the European club, without giving up its claims. territorial over Kosovo. The refusal of the Serbian majority in the north to live under the rule of the Kosovar Albanian authorities generates in Belgrade an intricate unofficial dilemma: maintain historical demands in favor of the unity of the Serbian people or bet everything on entry into the EU. Both options clash with the misgivings of some sectors of Serbian society, skeptical of a future that is not yet clear.

Not far away, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the functionality of the state is still under discussion. An institutional framework inherited from the Dayton peace agreements (1995), which, although it put an end to the war, failed to establish the best foundations for the political, economic and social development of the country. A Bosnian identity has yet to crystallize that overcomes the ethnic divisions between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats, even more bitter than those that manifested themselves in the form of conflict at the beginning of the Yugoslav wars of secession, although now with a different regional context, which It oscillates between the constriction imposed by the path towards the EU, political and economic redefinition, and post-conflict reconciliation. The international community and the EU seem to continue to be the main lifeline of a country in which too much money and diplomatic efforts have been invested for it to be abandoned to the fate of ethnic leadership, an unfavorable economic situation and frequent cases of corruption, scenarios whose consequences are still difficult to predict.

Macedonia and Greece continue with their swords raised over the name of the former Yugoslav republic. On November 5, 2011, the International Court of Justice ruled by a vote of 15 to 1 that Greece violated the 1995 interim agreement by vetoing Macedonia's application for NATO membership at the 2008 summit in Bucharest. The agreement between the two countries states that Greece could not block Macedonia's membership in international organizations if it was done under the provisional United Nations name of the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." Although there are more than 130 countries that have used the name "Republic of Macedonia" in their bilateral diplomatic relations, the United Nations and the EU use the name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." One more chapter in the Greek effort to prevent the name "Macedonia" from being attributed to this country, which is the same name as its northern region. Added to this is the designation of Skopje airport as “Alexander the Great”, in honor of Alexander the Great of Macedonia, or the architectural and monumental refoundation project “Skopje 2014”, in a clear initiative to boost Macedonian civil sentiment and enhance its historical legitimacy.

These are just some of the legacies of the past. Negative inertias arising from the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, and the political and war conflicts that emerged afterwards. For this reason, the dissolution of Yugoslavia continues to be a topical issue, which deserves careful study, through a constant regeneration of analyzes and interpretations that help us understand what is happening and how to address the future of the region. For these purposes, the 20 years that have passed since the Yugoslav dissolution have become a timely anniversary. On October 7, 2011, the Spanish Embassy together with the Megatrend University held the symposium “Twenty years after the dissolution of the Ex-Yugoslavia” in Belgrade, chaired by professor Slobodan Pajović and the Spanish diplomat Francisco de Miguel. The symposium was attended by Francisco Veiga and José Girón (Spain), Zdravko Grebo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ružica Jakešević (Croatia), Franco Juri (Slovenia), Srgjan Kerim (Macedonia), Saša Knežević (Montenegro), Zoran Avramović and Edita Stojić-Karanović (Serbia), who illustrated from their academic-professional experience different readings of the Yugoslav crises to locate the causes of the dissolution in: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the process of territorial and ideological redefinition that occurred later and its impact on Yugoslav institutions, a marked federalization, especially since the 1974 Constitution, and the inability of the Yugoslav model to adapt to the dynamics of a democratic system. The economic imbalances between republics, the failure of a neoliberal project for the Former Yugoslavia during the government headed by Ante Marković, the immediate holding of parliamentary elections with the fall of communism, and the ethnic division around the leaders were discussed. in each of the socialist republics. A collection of causes that, by themselves, do not solve the Yugoslav enigma, although they do reveal themselves as main objects of study, increasingly better founded on specialized literature and primary research sources.

Balkania has chosen in this issue to draw a line between past events and the political episodes that followed, with an approach to some of the issues that surround the Balkan news and that are closely related to the dissolution of Yugoslavia . In the first part, Balkania has compiled four articles corresponding to Francisco Veiga, Ružica Jakešević, Saša Knežević and Edita Stojić-Karanović, works exhibited at the aforementioned symposium. The organization of this event and its link to Balkania represents a step forward in the consolidation of the project and, in addition, this issue integrates Spanish and Southeast European academics in a common initiative. In a second part, the articles by Carlos Taibo, Carlos González, Miguel Palacios, Antonio Moneo, Carlos Flores and Esma Kučukalić prove the renewal of academic activity in Balkan studies from Spain and the gradual increase in researchers working in that direction. A third part as an annex includes the articles that have been translated from the original into Spanish.

Miguel Rodríguez Andreu

Balkania Editor-in-chief