IES - Institute for European Studies

by Laslo Sekelj

Global Project for 1996 - 2000: Europe and Yugoslavia: Problems of Integration, Modernization and Transition

This global project is intendeded to be an interdisciplinary inquiry dealing with the internal and external assumptions of an implementable strategy of transition. This project is based on the results of the preceeding global project entitled: "Europe in transformation: the nature, directions and perspectives". In the preceeding research period, emphasize was placed primarily on the causes of Yugoslav disintegration and the role Europe played in the Yugoslav crisis. The focus of current research is placed on devising a strategy of incorporating the Federal Republic (FR) of Yugoslavia in the European, regional, and global processes. This entails taking into consideration not only the internal processes in the FR Yugoslavia, but also the character and ambiguities of European integration, particularly in the post-Maastricht period.

The Aim of Research

The project has three distinct aims, corresponding to three levels of analysis:

a) To gain insight into the nature of the current western European reconstruction process, including the simultaneous processes of transnationalization, integration and regionalization. This means having to look into the normative, political and economic aspects of the current Western European evolution, their antinomies and modes of resolving them. This inquiry will, among other things, lead to the examination of the need for a new democratic agenda as a response to the emerging tensions between nation states and supranational communities.

b) Comprehensive analyses of the possibilities of development of the FR Yugoslav society in the aftermath of war and sanctions. The project will attempt to answer the question how it is possible to surmount the crisis of modernization, bypassing further disintegrative tendencies and sharp social conflicts and laying down the foundation for irreversible structural political and economic reforms. The aims of research include examining the role of Yugoslavia in the integration of the Balkan region. This involves examining whether and how the principles of the EU, the Council ofEurope, and the Organization for European Security and Cooperation can be applied to the Balkans in order to prevent its further destabilization.

c) To establish how the initial phases of transition in the Eastern European countries differ from one another, and what the more general implications of their experiences are. Two questions in particular will be examined: What are the consequences of the efforts of these countries to come closer to the European Union, while at the same time the interest in mutual cooperation is limited? What are the consequences of extending the European Union and NATO to Eastern Europe regarding geopolitical and security aspects?

Subprojects

The global research project is divided into four subprojects. Each subproject will be carried out by a research team consisting primarily, but not exclusively, of researchers from the Institute.

1. European integration after Maastricht - congruities and antinomies:

• Transformation of the normative concept of European integration;
• Nation state and supranational communities;
• The European Union as a model of European integration; The role of Germany in shaping the Europe of the 21st century;
• Constitutional and institutional difficulties of European collective security;
• Citizenship and nationhood within the EU.

2. The FR Yugoslavia in contemporary Europe: preconditions and obstacles to modernization:

• Yugoslavia in the light of philosophical-political paradigms of Europe;
• Legal and political status of Yugoslavia today;
• European human and minority rights standards and their implementation in Western Europe and Yugoslavia;
• Strategy of resolving internal conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia;
• Interventionism as a mode of conflict resolution in the post-cold-war period;
• UN sanctions and the New World Order: FR Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Haiti. The status of the FR Yugoslavia within the framework of regional and European systems of collective security;
• Chronology of Yugoslav crisis.

3. Comparative research on transition in Eastern European countries:

• Post-communist modernization: comparative aspects of economic and political transformation;
• Liberalism, socialism and transformation of East-Central Europe;
• Party and electoral systems in the newly emerged democracies;
• Parliamentarian and presidential systems;
• Ethnic conflicts in the era of post-communism;

4. The Balkans as a European region: status and prospects:

• Regions as elements of European integration: evolution and institutionalization of regional autonomies;
• The status of the Balkans in the post-cold-war era and its prospects within the integrative processes in the European West;
• Nation-state, self-determination and minorities in the Balkans, between principles and practice;
  • Possibilities and obstacles to the economic and political cooperation of the Balkan countries.

Publications

In spite of extremely unfavorable circumstances the Institute has published more than 18 books in the past five years. The book Europe and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia, and two volumes of the Chronology of the Yugoslav Crisis, covering the period from 1990-1994, were published in Serbian and English, whereas the book Federalism and Minorities in Multiethnic Communities was published in Serbian and German.

In the next research period the institute will continue to publish its results. Four types of publications are planned: monographic studies, collections of articles, (in English and Serbian), shorter ad hoc analyses for the edition Analyses and the Chronology of the Yugoslav Crisis (for 1995 and 1996). By 1997 the Chronology of Events will be introduced; it will include important political and economic documents.

Conferences

Parts of the research results will be presented at national and international conferences. For the time being four meetings are planned:

a. In 1996: an international conference dealing with the Balkans (a book with contributions by the researchers of the Institute will be prepared and published prior to the Conference).

b. In the first half of 1997: an international conference on human rights (a collection of articles will be published in advance as well). In the second half of the same year: the international conference European Democracy Today will be organized in cooperation with the German Cultural Center.

c. In 1998: an international conference on the problems of transition will be organized.

Recent Publications

Radmila Nakarada (ed.): Europe and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Thomas Fleiner and Slobodan Samardþi‡ (eds.): Federalism and the Minorities Problem in Multiethnic Communities. Comparative Analysis of Switzerland and Yugoslavia (also available in German).

Radmila Nakarada, Lidija Basta, Slobodan Samardþi‡ (eds.): Disintegration of Yugoslavia - Continuation or End of Agony?

Zlatko Isakovi‡ (ed.): Armies and Changes in European Socialist Countries.

Gordana Þivkovi‡ (ed.): The Man and the Church in the Maelstrom of the Crisis - What can Orthodox Christianity Offer us Today?

Chronologies

Slobodanka Kova˜evi‡ and Putnik Daji‡: Chronology of the Yugoslav Crisis 1942-1993 (also available in English).

Slobodanka Kova˜evi‡ and Putnik Daji‡: Chronology of the Yugoslav Crisis 1994 (also available in English and German).

Monographs

Laslo Sekelj: Time of Shame. Essays on the Rule of Nationalism.

Slobodan Samardþi‡: Coercive Community and Democracy. Essays on Crisis, Breakdown and Use of State.

Dragan Laki‡evi‡: An Essay on the Institutions of Liberty.

Djuro Kova˜evi‡: Lost History. Essays on the Yugoslav Crisis.

Djuro Kova˜evi‡: Requiem for Socialism.

IES Series "Analyses"

Radmila Nakarada: The Post Bipolar World: The North/South Antinomies.

Bojana Dragovi‡: Association Agreements with the European Union.

BranimirStojkovi‡: Cultural Policy of European Integration - The European Union and the Council of Europe.

Dimitrije Stankovi‡: Monetary Union within the European Community.

Miomir Jakãi‡: Perspectives of European Integration - Macroeconomic Coordination in the European Community.

L. Basta, R. Nakarada, S. Samardþi‡, J. Teokarevi‡, Dj. Kova˜evi‡: Inter-ethnic Conflict and War in Former Yugoslavia (also available in English).

Forthcoming

Slobodanka Kova˜evi‡ and Putnik Daji‡: Chronology of the Yugoslav Crisis 1995 (also available in English).

Books can be ordered from:

MRSLJEÃ, Bulvar vojvode Miãi‡a 39a, 11000 Beograd, FR Yugoslavia
Phone +381-11-651-166, or from the institute directly.

IES has a permanent staff of 14 fellows and a network of more than 20 associated researchers. We are interested in establishing contacts with institutions and researchers, exchange of publications, and other relevant activities. Please contact:

Laslo Sekelj

Institute for European Studies (IES)
P. Fah 689
YU-11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia
Phone: +381-11-334-497
Fax: +381-11-332-040
E-mail: IES-BGDÞOPENNT:ORG

Prof. Dr. Laslo Sekelj is director of the Institute for European Studies in Belgrade.

EURODATA Newsletter No.4, p.6-7