СРБИЈА НА “ЗАПАДУ”: Српско двовековно распеће између модернизације и вестернизације
Abstract
Глишин, Вања. 2024. Србија на „Западу”: српско двовековно распеће између модернизације и вестернизације. Београд: Институт за политичке студије; Нови Сад: Архив Војводине. ISBN 978-86-7419-389-1 (ИПС) ISBN 978-86-6178-100-1 (АВ)
A new book published by the Institute for Political Studies, Belgrade and the Archives of Vojvodina SERBIA IN THE “WEST” – Serbian two-century crucifixion between modernization and westernization, author Dr. Vanja Glišin.
This monograph was created on the basis of the amended and supplemented text of the doctoral dissertation “Challenges of post-Cold War democratization and Serbia’s position between Euro-Atlanticism and Neo-Eurasianism”, Vanja Glišin, defended at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade on June 12, 2023.
According to the author, the motivation and need to conduct a multidisciplinary research stemmed from the fact that Serbia has been in a complex geopolitical position for centuries, which is either overestimated or underestimated, as a result of which the scientific and social public is often left without a redundant answer.
Although, apparently, the topic seems too broad, with a beginning, but without the possibility of reaching a well-founded end, the results of the research show that by analyzing the subjects and problems of the research at the strategic and tactical level and multi-causal reasoning, we actually arrive at well-founded answers that justify the position that Serbia and Serbian society finds itself in a two-century crucifixion between modernization and westernization.
By analyzing Serbia’s position in international relations, we would gain certain insights at the foreign policy level, such as international cooperation, bilateral agreements, diplomatic visits and negotiations, economic exchange and the like, but we would often be left without an answer to the question “Why is Serbia’s position in international relations in centuries-old continuity complex and unfavorable?”. This is why there is a need for geopolitics and geopolitical research methods, which are a kind of key to understanding international relations and decoding the complex context that affects the complexity of the position of a state and the processes that take place in it. Specifically, Serbia is in the process of modernization and democratization from the constitution of the modern Serbian state in the 19th century until today, and it is possible to follow these processes at the domestic political level, which will lead to the conclusion that they are non-linear and changeable, with periods of stagnation or regression. On the other hand, if we position Serbia on the world political map, primarily between East and West or two opposing poles of power, Russia and the United States of America, we will see why the international position of the Serbian state is complex and how this is reflected in internal political processes. However, we get a more comprehensive insight by simultaneously analyzing those two levels, and hence the subject and research problem formulated in this way.
The layeredness of the scientific monograph, therefore, aims to familiarize the scientific and social public, first of all, with the basic conceptual-categorical apparatus and theoretical frameworks in the domain of political science, international relations and geopolitics, which is the strategic level of analysis, so that, then, on the tactical at the level of analysis identified the key aspects of the application of geopolitical constants in the current sequence of events, through a concrete explanation of the interests that are hidden behind those processes.
There is a primal need to modernize the Serbian state and society in full capacity. However, on the other hand, the process of Westernization is an ideological conceptual and emergent form that, under the veil of modernization, hides the geopolitical motivations and goals of the leading countries of the West to carry out the civilizational conversion of non-Western societies into the Western civilization circle. Civilizational conversion does not mean the modernization of a state and society, but the creation of a disorganized state that will represent an outsider in the civilization circle of the West.
Bearing the above in mind, the author tried to point out, from the Serbian point of view, the Serbian crucifixion between modernization and westernization, decoding the actors and processes behind such a disadvantageous position, and to prevent the continuation of the Serbian “no alternative” wandering.
