yugoslavias implosion

would be better to “suck Serbia into” the system of collective security
than to let it vacillate between the wishes of the conservative
and the pro-reform camps. The conservatives continued to obstruct
“silent” reform in the army. General Zdravko Ponoš, who was the
standard-bearer of reforms, was removed in 2008 under pressure
from the conservatives—who oppose any signs of the Europeanization
of Serbia’s military—and probably from Russia, too—which was
eager that Serbia not become a nato member. Yet although reform
was not comprehensive, preparations for transforming the Army
were made. Substantial transformation, however, is not possible
without the support of nato.
The privileged position within Serbia that the Army and other
elements of the security apparatus enjoy has been maintained in part
by close ties to the new financial elite and in part through a skilful
propaganda campaign conducted through the security services’
media outlets, which continue to shape public opinion by manufacturing
lies (such as alleged cia-orchestrated conspiracies against
the Serbian people) and scandals, all of which has distorted society
to a point where it is no longer capable of feeling any responsibility.
Thanks to their status and position, the security services are helping
to shape society—a society whose culture in turns celebrates their
achievements.
A CULTURE THAT GLORIFIES WAR
Hopes that the fall of Milošević would produce major changes
in the political and cultural spheres have failed to materialize. Politics
and culture remain locked in a symbiotic relationship that fuels
a refusal to reevaluate the past. Indeed, far from renouncing symbols
of the country’s bloody, brutal, and ultra-nationalistic past—symbols
such as the Chetnik movement of World War II and the men accused
by the Hague Tribunal of war crimes in the 1990s—many Serbs are
glorifying them.
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