yugoslavias implosion

or abroad, these groups are able to continue their activities in the
post-Milošević period. Their continuing influence on the country’s
cultural norms and moral values is the main obstacle to establishing
a moral framework indispensable to the recovery of Serbian society.
SERBIAN NATIONALISM AND A POLICY OF WAR
The Collapse of Communism and the Rise of Radical Nationalism
All the complex socialist federations (Czechoslovakia, the Soviet
Union, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) disintegrated
after the collapse of Communism because they lacked the democratic
potential needed for their survival and transformation into democratic
societies. Yugoslavia faced an additional existential problem
in that the country had always sought to preserve cohesion by
constantly playing upon the alleged aggressive designs of foreign
powers and by glorifying the accomplishments of its socialist system.
When the Cold War drew to a close, however, international
players promptly relinquished Yugoslavia as a geostrategic priority
and Yugoslav claims (made by the ypa in the first place) of foreign
threats became patently false claims. At the same time, few in Europe
seemed to mourn the disappearance of the Soviet ideological system.
Thus the appeal of “socialist accomplishments” rang very hollow
both inside and outside Yugoslavia.
Perhaps Yugoslavia might have made the transformation nonetheless,
because at least some of the preconditions for such a change
existed: The Yugoslav economy was already partly a market economy
and the country’s ties with the West were significant (it was on
the verge of entering into an association agreement with the European
Community, being granted observer status in the Council of
Europe and establishing special ties with nato). Political elites in
the socialist Yugoslavia missed the historical opportunity, however,
and failed to live up to and to build upon the promising parts of the
281
ChApter 4