yugoslavias implosion

CHAPTER 2
the Army’s role in political Life
The disintegration of Yugoslavia cannot be understood without
comprehending the role and significance of the Yugoslav People’s
Army (ypa), which was always dominated by Serbs. Since the creation
of the modern Serbian state, the Army has had an ambivalent
relationship with the government. On the one hand, it has seen
itself as the bulwark of a stable state and has championed an authoritarianism
rooted in the highly conservative, agrarian character of
Serbian society. The Army played a key part in the formation of the
state—that is, during the Balkan wars in the early part of the twentieth
century—and always enjoyed the sympathy and the respect of the
Serbian people. On the other hand, the Army has sometimes operated
as an independent political actor, taking upon itself the formulation
of national political goals. In 1903, for instance, members of the
military organized the “May coup,” in which the Serbian king, Aleksandar
Obrenović, was murdered because of his pro-Austrian views
and replaced by Petar Karađorđević. 163
This chapter charts the political role played by the ypa in Yugoslavia’s
struggles to define itself politically and territorially. After
first sketching the Army’s relationship with the state in the first seventy-odd
years of the twentieth century, the chapter then analyzes
the contest under Tito and in the immediate aftermath of his death
to define the ypa’s constitutional role; the ypa’s opposition to the
163 Olga Popović-Obradović, Vojna elita i civilna vlast u Srbiji 1903–1914. godine (Military
and Civilian Authority in Serbia 1903–1914) , Zbornik Srbija u modernizacijskim
procesima 19 . i 20 . veka – uloga elita (Serbia in Modernization Processes in
the 19 th and 20 th century), ed . Latinka Perović, Beograd, Čigoja 2003 .
125
ChApter 2