South East Europe 1980–2010: A Short Historical Overview

In South East Europe the three decades between the early 1980s and the present day have been marked by a historical caesura, which can be roughly described as the transition from a system of ‘real Socialism’ towards a concept that can be subsumed under the terms of ‘democracy’ and ‘free market economy’. The 1990s were characterized by the onset of war, ‘ethnic cleansing’, mass rape and destruction for a considerable part of the region. In the last decade we can finally observe the accession to the European Union (EU) of three of the region’s countries — Slovenia in 2004, and Romania as well as Bulgaria in 2007. There is also the promise of accession for other candidates — Croatia, Montenegro and probably Serbia. Simultaneously we can also observe a shared disillusionment among the population about the achievements of the last 20 years. In the so-called ‘Western Balkans’ (Petrović, 2009), state borders and the number of states did not remain the same during this period. From 1991 to 1992, the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was dismembered through the recognition of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia (officially called the ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’) as independent states. The two remaining republics, those of Serbia and Montenegro, formed the ‘Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’ in 1992, which was renamed as ‘Serbia and Montenegro’ in 2003.