yugoslavias implosion

12
Foreword
II
Biserko’s argument in this volume is twofold. First, she argues
that Serbian nationalism, traceable back to the nineteenth century,
was the main factor in generating the break-up of socialist Yugoslavia
and propelling its people into internecine conflict. Second, she
argues that Serbian nationalism continues to be a problem even today,
in spite of Serbia’s defeat in 1995 and again in 1999. Serb nationalists
are fond of citing novelist Dobrica Ćosić’s claim that Serbia wins its
wars, but loses the peace. In fact, what some Serbian politicians hope
to do now is to ”win the peace” in spite of having been defeated twice
over in recent memory. What ”winning” would mean at this point in
time would entail annexation of the Republika Srpska portion of Bosnia-Herzegovina
– although both the previous and the present government
of Serbia have repudiated any such ambition – and partition
of Kosovo (although newly elected President Tomislav Nikolić speaks
as if Kosovo were still under Serbian sovereignty). Serb nationalism,
like nationalism everywhere, is thus about land. But it is not only
about land. It is also about culture and the national religion, both of
which – nationalists stress – need to be preserved and safeguarded
from perceived threats (whether real or not).
But what is nationalism? One way to think about it – and I
believe that this also accords with Biserko’s point of view – is to view
a nationalist as someone who places the interests of his or her own
nation over the interests of other nations (to the extent that seizure
of land from another nation and the expulsion of members of that
other nation are considered ”justified” by the nationalist), the interests
of members of his own nation over the interests of members of
other nations, and the interests of his own nation as a collectivity
over the interests of individual members of his own nation. This last
point is often ignored, but the way in which the Milošević regime
plundered the economy and the country’s own citizens, in order to