Articoli

• GEOSTRATEGIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BALKAN “GREATER SPACES”
  Nebojša Vuković Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade
  
  ABSTRACT
  In the paper, the greater-state concepts – the ideas of “Greater Bulgaria”, “Greater Greece”, “Greater Albania”, “Greater Serbia”, and “Greater Croatia” – are analyzed from the geostrategic point of view. Special attention is dedicated to the following parameters of these geopolitical projects – the potential size of the territory, and the position in relation to the main strategic routes of operations in the European war theater. Finally, the author critically also refers to the relatively ephemeral historical episodes when some of those projects came to life – the so-called ISoC (Independent State of Croatia), Bulgaria, and Albania during the Second World War. Several scientific methods are used in the paper – hypothetical-deductive, comparative, historical and cartographic. The author drawn two important conclusions. The first conclusion that can be drawn with respect to the “greater spaces” of the Balkans at the moments of their actualization or the wished projection, at least from the point of view of geostrategy, is that they are all, principally, small-sized. The second conclusion relates to the fact that, irrespective of all the actualized or envisaged enlargements, not one of the Balkan “greater spaces” would have had control of all or at least the majority of the strategic objects, routes or communications on the peninsula or at its borders. In that respect, too, every “greater space” would only be “relatively great”.
  KEYWORDS: GEOSTRATEGY, BALKAN’S STRATEGIC OBJECTS, “GREATER SPACES” OF THE BALKANS
  
  
  
• I CONFINI BALCANICI: LO STATO NAZIONE E IL RIORDINO EUROPEO NEL CASO SERBO
  Slobodan Janković Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrado
  TITLE: The Balkan borders: Serbian case of nation state and European reordering
  
  ABSTRACT
  Balkan nations were catching the same train as Prussians and Savoy’s to finish the process of the national liberation and unification in the second half of the 19th century, but this process was not over until the end of the next century. In fact, last decade of 20th century was time when last multinational state in the Balkans and truly heter- ogeneous and multicultural society, was confronted with rising nationalism from within and more important project of the western led creation of the new multi-layer and het- erogeneous creation – EU from outside. Liberal world order was against nation states in the long run, in particular against strong nation state. Victory of the Western led global liberal order was reflected in the Balkans with creation of small nation states, imagining greater spaces of fully integrated ethnic nations, and division of Serbs in several states and territories of contested status. Article is divided in six chapters. Author depicts geopolitical context of the Jugoslav wars, and current importance of the Balkan Peninsula with focus on former Yugoslav republics and province of Kosovo and Metohija for the transport, mili- tary power projection and energy. He continues with analysis of the global trends in which local nationalistic policies flourish. Special focus is dedicated to NATO, USA and British policies vis-a-vis Europe, the Balkans and the Serbs perceived as Russian allies. In chapter 4 Jankovic presents history of the Serbian ideas of national liberation and unification, creation of Yugoslavia and responds to charges of Greater Serbia. Finally, author concludes that national questions of Serbs, Albanians and eventually of Croats remain unresolved and may represent soil for new contestations of the current borders.
  KEYWORDS: BALKANS, NATION STATE, SERBIA, NATO, EU
  
  
  
• A GRIM CENTENNIAL: CROATIA’S IDEOLOGY OF STATE RIGHTS AND THE CREATION OF YUGOSLAVIA
  Srđa Trifković School of Political Sciences, University of Banja Luka
  
  ABSTRACT
  Between the Congress of Vienna and Versailles, several European nations made a bid to break free from imperial rule, or (as in the case of Italy) to reassemble the fragments of putative nationhood that had been scattered and snatched up by foreign powers, or (as in the case of Germany) to bring into being an idea that had matured well before Sedan. Croats had not enjoyed an independent national existence since the beginning of the XII century, and they were not immune to the spirit of 1848. The spectrum of nationalist political opinion, which developed thereafter, ranged from the “Illyrian” South Slavism to a virulent form of us-and-them dichotomy, which treated Serbs as perpetual enemies, or even subhuman demons. In the mid-XIX century the Serbs of Serbia, recently emancipated, had no direct quarrel with the Croats. The seeds of the Serb-Croat quarrel in the Yugoslav era were sown long before, however. Old resentment had spread beyond the neofeudal elite. In the 1860’s and 70’s it became “democratized” and gave rise to the political ideology of Croatian state rights (Pravaćtvo). It included the dual claim that (a) the Serbs in Croatia were but misnamed Orthodox Croats; and (b) that those Serbs who rejected such designation were racially inferior “breed”. The problem of Serb-Croat relations, burdened by an ambiguous legacy of earlier centuries, was aggravated by the creation of the Yugoslav state (December 1, 1918). Author claims that those relations probably would have remained ambivalent but tractable, had the two nations not been brought under the same roof. Yet, as this article seeks to establish, the disputes between two linguistically similar but historically, ethnically and culturally distinct peoples – are not a recent phenomenon, and the ideology of Croatian state rights has been a major contributory factor to the problem. Trifkovic uses text analysis and other historic methods in exploring core Croatian state ideology. This ideology led to the imagination of the greater space built at expense and against the Serbian people and Muslim population west of river Drina.
  KEYWORDS: CROATS, SERBS, STATE RIGHTS
  
  
  
• THE CONCEPT OF GREATER CROATIA IN THE WORK OF IVO PILAR
  Dušan Dostanić Research Fellow, Institute for Political Studies, Belgrade, Serbia
  
  ABSTRACT
  The paper seeks to explore the concept of the Greater Croatia, as it was devel- oped in the work of its most important proponent Ivo Pilar (1874-1933). Although Pilar wrote his main book one hundred years ago and in a different historical context, his ideas are still influential in the Croatian public discourse. The author argues that Pilar was the writer who developed the most detailed conception of the Greater Croatia, and that he remained loyal to his main conclusions throughout his lifetime and in different historical situations. The author argues that Pilar’s concept was based on his understanding of the relationship between Serbs and Croats, and their ethnic, religious, cultural and moral differences. Pilar considered Serbs to be culturally and morally inferior to Croats, and emphasized that the so-called Serbian-Orthodox expansionism was the main threat, not only to Croatia but also to Europe. So Pilar’s goal was the establishment of the Greater Croatia, which sup- posed to include Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a Europe- an bulwark against the Serbs and their alleged Byzantinism. In this strategy provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina played the crucial role because of their geopolitical, economical, historical importance for Croatia. The article is divided into four chapters. In the first section is given a brief overview of the development of Pilar’s ideas. The second section deals with his understanding of the Serbian question, and cultural foundations of the Greater Croatia and the third part considers Pilar’s geopolitical program. In the fourth section, Pilar’s later works are discussed in order to highlight the continuity of his ideas in different historical circumstances.
  KEYWORDS: IVO PILAR, GREATER CROATIA, THE SOUTH SLAV QUESTION
  
  
  
• L’INFLUENZA DELLA TRADUZIONE E DELLA SEMIOTICA NELLA PERCEZIONE DELLO SPAZIO GEOPOLITICO E NELL’IMAGINARIUM DEL SUD-EST EUROPEO
  Ilias G. Spyridonìdis Università Arstotele di Salonicco
  TITLE: Translation and semiotic influence in the perception of the geopolitical space and in the imaginarium of the southeast Europe
  
  ABSTRACT
  This study constitutes an interdisciplinary approach on the dynamic and even critical role of the influence of semiotics and translations in the selection, production, transmission and reception of ideas related to geopolitical space in Southeast Europe. In order to understand better the configuration of the geopolitical imaginarium and often of the controversial policies, it is necessary to analyze the formulation of ideas, thoughts, opinions, trends, visions and symbols as a result of the geocultural influence between the center and the periphery. The geocultural influence approach between central and peripheral cultural systems in the interdisciplinary framework of semiotic, cultural and translational studies can constitute an innovative hermeneutical methodology, useful for the analysis of the construction, the configuration and the content of the geopolitical imaginarium
  KEYWORDS: GEOCULTURAL INFLUENCE, PERCEPTION AND DIFFUSION OF THE TRANSLATIONS, GEOPOLITICAL IMAGINARIUM.
  
  
  
• IL LABORATORIO GEOPOLITICO E CARTOGRAFICO ITALIANO: ERNESTO MASSI E MARIO MORANDI A MILANO
  Andrea Perrone Università degli Studi di Tor Vergata
  TITLE: The Italian geopolitical and cartographic laboratory: Ernesto Massi and Mario Morandi in Milan
  
  ABSTRACT
  In the early Thirties of the last century, Milan became the laboratory for the birth and definition of the scientific status of Italian geopolitics and cartography, applied to the new discipline. The initiative was organized by Ernesto Massi who, after moving to Milan, decided to prepare the guidelines for the new scientific paradigm, outlining the birth and development of the new discipline through conferences, articles and publications with the help of the cartographer and journalist Mario Morandi who lent himself, from the second half of the Thirties, to the realization of the scientific project.
  KEYWORDS: GEOPOLITICS, ERNESTO MASSI, MARIO MORANDI
  
  
  
• LA RIVISTA «GEOPOLITICA» (1939-1942) E LA PRIMA GUERRA MONDIALE: UN TENTATIVO (FALLITO) DI INTEGRAZIONE E ORGANICITÀ AL POTERE
  Matteo Marconi Sapienza Università di Roma
  
  ABSTRACT
  The review «Geopolitica» has been founded during the 1930s into the sparkling environment of Trieste, thanks to the supportive activity of Ernesto Massi and Giorgio Roletto. It was the most advanced effort to institutionalize the geopolitics as au- tonomous scientific discipline. Its short-term life – caused by the political involvement in Fascism that allowed its creation – brought new features in the field of Italian geo- graphical research, enriched by different style, methodology and conceptual stage far from the traditional view. «Geopolitica» has been an real attempt to overcome the “academic positivism”, which «… divides knowledge from life» as said Carlo Michelstaedter. Final purpose of this analysis is a reconstruction of the IWW interpretation on «Geopolitica», in order to enlighten how this sensitive issue generated new production of knowledge and practice of power.
  KEYWORDS: GEOPOLITICA (1939-1942), ERNESTO MASSI, CLASSICAL GEOPOLITICS
  
  
  


ORIZZONTI


• PALESTINA, GENESI ED EVOLUZIONE DEGLI INSEDIAMENTI ISRAELIANI IN CISGIORDANIA
  Eleonora Palone ISAG
  TITLE: Palestine, genesis and evolution of Israeli settlements in West Bank
  
  ABSTRACT
  Reflecting on the action in space we come to understand the reasons for the conflicts, this method can also be applied in Arab-Israeli conflict, that since May of 1948, destabilizes the Middle East. After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel extended beyond its borders and started a policy of settlements for Israeli civilians in the West Bank. It can be observed as this policy of settlements prevent a nascent Palestinian statehood. The analysis will look at the political, ideological and religious implications of the problem, analyzing the stratification of settlements from a spatial and temporal point of view, highlighting the position expressed by the various Israeli political forces. The attempt of this study will provide food for thought, that start from action in space get to understand the reason for the conflict that still today destabilizes the Middle East.
  KEYWORDS: ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS; WEST BANK