Budimir KOSUTIC

DISAPPEARANCE OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE CONFLICT OF CIVILIZATIONS IN THE BALKANS?

According to his main scientific thesis that the basic source of clashes in the world after the end of the cold war is not to be primarily economical or ideological, but cultural, prominent American scholar Samuel Huntington conclude in several of his works, that the disappearance of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is a consequence of conflict of civilizations on its territories. Similar to the processes in other parts of the world, the divisions from the times of the cold war have been changed in the Balkans, says Huntington, to division between states and nations along religious and civilizational borders, as well. Dissolution of Yugoslavia has been successfully enabled, according to Huntington, by the support which the West gave as an answer to the demands of the two catholic republics (Slovenia and Croatia) for their independence (the answer of the West was forced, according to Huntington, by Germany and its catholic connections). At the same time, Huntington pointed out, the Islamic countries supported the Bosnian Moslems, while the orthodox world supported (to less extent, because of its dependence on the West) the orthodox Serbs.

Although Huntington's description of the events on the territories of the former Yugoslavia is basically true (he especially pointed out that the role of the Serbs in the disintegration of Yugoslavia was not assessed in an objective way), his basic thesis about disintegration of Yugoslavia is not to be accepted. It is not civilizations that wage wars among themselves, but the states and nations. On the other hand, the conflicts among the sides at the former Yugoslav territories appeared in the both world wars. The basis of those conflicts was not the clash of civilizations, but the struggle of the Balkan peoples for monopoly of the territories, resources and power. On the other hand, the straggle of the Balkan peoples was never free of the influence of the Great Powers and their aspirations for the spheres of interest in the Balkans.

Thus, the disappearance of the SFRY has never been the consequence of the clashes of civilizations. On the contrary, it was provoked by several inner and outer factors. One of the most negative circumstances was that the former Yugoslav communist leadership did not establish the social basis for the creation of multiethnic, pluralistic, civil society. Therefore, when it was necessary to find a reasonable explanation for the further existence and expansion of the NATO in the East, after the shock made by the collapse of the Soviet Union and disappearance of the Warsaw Treaty, it was the outer factors that almost supported, rather than prevented the outbreak of the civil war and the disappearance of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

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