YUGOSLAV FOREIGN POLICY: CONTINUITY AND CHANGES

Yıl 1997, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 3, 0 - 0, 01.09.1997

Predrag Simic

Öz

Changes in Yugoslav foreign policy began towards the end of the eighties under the influence of numerous external and internal factors which called for a profound revision of the country’s foreign policy agenda in order to meet the new realities in Europe and the world. Yugoslavia emerged from World War II as a socialist country, but after conflict with the Soviet Union in 1948, it solicited the support of the West, and, finally, in the mid-fifties, it found a comfortable position as a strategic buffer between the East and West, whilst at the beginning of the sixties she likewise became one of the leading countries of the Non-Aligned Movement. The end of the Cold War changed this international position: the changes in Eastern Europe made her lose her position as a strategic buffer and marginalized the significance of the Non-Aligned Movement in international relations. The drastic internal crisis that incited centrifugal aspirations among the Yugoslav republics likewise had its effect, necessitating an immediate revision of her foreign policy towards European integration.