The Sfr Yugoslavia during the Cold War and Current Serbian Foreign Policy

This paper will discuss the policy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Cold War period, and some of its repercussion for the current Serbian foreign policy. The SFR Yugoslavia, though a communist country, did not belong to the Eastern bloc (WTO). Due to its political orientation and geographical role it did not belong to the Western bloc (NATO) either. Therefore, Yugoslavia, with its president Josip Broz Tito, used this to its advantage to play an intermediary position and to cooperate with the both sides at different times. At the same time, Yugoslavia developed and implemented a non-aligned attitude towards international affairs with India, Egypt and Burma. Thus, the SFR Yugoslavia was one of the founding countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). As a result, Yugoslavia was, at the beginning, the only European country in the Movement and was the host country of the first Conference of the Non-Aligned Countries in 1961. In this respect, Yugoslavia propagated itself as a bridge between the Eastern and the Western bloc. The analysis of historical data will show that this non-aligned position was a consequence of Yugoslav balancing between the "two poles" and finding the best option for the country. Currently, the main goal of the Republic of Serbia’s (RS) foreign policy is to enter the European Union. At the same time, Serbian politicians are simultaneously trying to influence the NAM in order to accomplish support against Kosovo independence. In other words, since the only European country in the NAM is currently Belarus, Serbian politicians exploit Serbia’s European position and its Yugoslavian legacy. I will explore SFRY: NAM :: RS:NAM relationships in order to examine current Serbian foreign politics. Hence, this paper makes parallel between the non-aligned position of the SFRY as "a strategy of survival" during the Cold War and current foreign policies of the Republic of Serbia and its strategies for achieving the following goals: entering the European Union and gaining support against Kosovo’s independence.