Not even 44 years since the death of the president of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ) Josip Broz Tito, the former republics cannot reach the international position of the then common state and remain only its "pale shadow".
This was assessed by the interlocutors of "Vijesti", commenting on Tito's almost half a century of foreign policy, a period when, as they said, Yugoslavia achieved significant successes on the international level.
Foreign policy commentator Bosko Jaksic says that there are more significant achievements of Broz's diplomacy.
"He managed to raise a relatively small country to the top of the global events of his time. Yugoslavia was respected both in the West and in the East," Jakšić points out.
A long-time diplomat and leader of Demos Miodrag Lekić he said that, even when critically evaluating the overall balance of Tito's rule, there is a fairly high consensus in the evaluations of an important segment of the state policy of socialist Yugoslavia.
"It is a foreign policy lasting almost half a century, a period when the second Yugoslavia achieved significant successes on the international level. Certainly, it managed to become and remain an independent country, with an enviable role as an active protagonist in international life. Both in the domain of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy", said Lekić.
Tito was the lifelong president of the SFRY and the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia, marshal and supreme commander of the armed forces, who ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years. His role in the Second World War, when he led the partisan resistance movement, is particularly significant, and he is remembered as a commander whose partisans fought countless battles with a more powerful opponent and managed to defeat the Nazi forces with the help of allies. During the war, at the second session of the AVNOJ in the Bosnian town of Jajce, on November 29, 1943, the foundations of socialist Yugoslavia were laid, and Tito was declared a marshal - the highest military rank in the Yugoslav army.
After the war, he skillfully balanced between the Eastern and Western blocs, winning the neutral position of Yugoslavia, as the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement.
He died on May 4, 1980 in the Clinical Center in Ljubljana. Many citizens of the former SFRY still visit his grave in the House of Flowers in Dedinje, Belgrade, where his wife was also buried 11 years ago. Jovanka.
Tito's funeral was attended by more than 200 prominent figures from around the world, including the president of the then Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, chancellor of the then West Germany Helmut Schmidt, the leader of East Germany Erich Honecker and the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
Ten years later, Yugoslavia became the scene of civil wars, after the secession of the former Yugoslav republics, first of Slovenia, and then of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, all former republics are independent states, two are members of the EU (Slovenia and Croatia), and the other four are candidates for joining the EU - a new common state.
The superpowers respected the position of Yugoslavia
Lekić reminds that SFRY, by not joining either the NATO or the Warsaw Pact, acted independently, even as an original builder of peaceful coexistence that would turn into the Non-Aligned Movement bringing together a large number of countries.
In that movement, Yugoslavia had a leadership role, both in the doctrinal and organizational sense, giving the foreign policy also a pragmatic character, with certain economic benefits, he assessed.
"Such an approach characterized Yugoslav foreign policy in relations with Eastern and Western countries, primarily with the Soviet Union and the USA. Someone would find contradictions in the fact that Tito's Yugoslavia actually belonged neither to the East nor to the West, but at the same time it was ideologically closer to the East and economically to the West. It was about diplomacy as the skill of the possible," says Lekić.
As he added, both superpowers respected Yugoslavia's position, expressing interest in cooperation with it.
He believes that the bloc division of the world, the geopolitical and military strategic position of Yugoslavia, gave Tito's state room for broad diplomatic activity.
"This all affected the growth and reputation of the diplomatic service as well as Yugoslav diplomats, who mostly acted competently and in accordance with international rules. This was reflected in many stages, starting with the international recognition of the country at the Paris Conference, the Yalta agreement, through the 1948 state conflict with the Soviet Union, which had far-reaching consequences for the country's international position," Lekić reminded.
Anti-Stalinist Stalinism
In 1948, Tito rejected the Resolution of the Information Bureau of the Communist Parties and resisted strong pressure from the leaders of the USSR Joseph Stalin. This began the public phase of the conflict between the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the communist movement dominated by Moscow. The consequence of the Tito-Stalin conflict, on the internal level, was the initiation of a series of repressive measures, the climax of which was the opening of the camp on Goli otok, where the communist authorities imprisoned former party comrades, even if only because of suspicion of disloyalty to the party's policy towards the Soviet Union. .
Jakšić states that Tito skilfully used the rift with Stalin and since then masterfully played on the seesaw of the Cold War.
"He recognized the opportunity visionarily and used it wisely. The project of neutral countries, later non-aligned, launched Tito into the orbit of the world. Compared to the founding fathers of the Movement - the Prime Minister of India, the presidents of Egypt, Indonesia and Ghana - he imposed himself as a leader, which provided Yugoslavia with a position that, objectively, on a global level was disproportionate to the size and potential of the country," he said.
Lekić points out that the very successful chapter of Yugoslav diplomacy refers to activities in international organizations, especially in the United Nations (UN) system, which had the role of maintaining international peace and security.
Yugoslavia is one of the founding countries of the UN, a signatory to its Charter, which contains the basic principles of world order and international law.
Lekić points out, however, that the overall successful foreign policy and diplomatic results of Tito's period had another side, so no period of history should be glorified.
"Without a doubt, the bold, risky and progressive foreign policy move of resistance to the hegemonic pretensions of the Stalinist Soviet Union was followed on the internal plane by the use of Stalinist methods of persecution and torture of people on Goli Otok, that actually Yugoslav gulag on the Adriatic. All of which influenced the sometimes assessment of the Yugoslav system as 'anti-Stalinist Stalinism,'" says Lekić.
He points out that the domestic cult of personality was manifested on the international stage as well. Thus, as he stated, the so-called Tito's ways of peace, so one pompous boat trip in 1961 during a visit to African countries lasted 72 days.
"While the ship 'Galeb' with a chosen entourage sailed the seas of peace and justice, a former prominent communist revolutionary was in the domestic prison (Milovan Djilas) who described the deformations of the emergence of a new class in the book of the same title. However, not even certain deformations of society from the period we are describing can diminish the importance of Yugoslav diplomacy, which objectively had its high reaches. Recognized internationally", Lekić said.
"Leader of the region" - the maximum of today's politicians
Speaking about the reputation of the former Yugoslav republics, Lekić states that the international position and reputation of Yugoslavia at the time was far stronger than its successors.
"Namely, in one not-so-short period, the newly created states, created as successors to Yugoslavia, were, however, not all to the same extent, generators of international problems and instability. It is not uncommon to hear the assessment that some of the new countries have the status, in any case the appearance, of protectorate creations, in any case not resembling a once strong state with constructive action in the wider international space", he said.
He believes that recalling and even studying the foreign policy of the former Yugoslavia could be not only interesting reading, but also learning that can help many experienced people in the time of new world whirlwinds and risky games of power and powerlessness.
According to Jakšić, when the Second World War ended, Broz realized that among the partisans who came to power there were very few who could deal with diplomacy.
"He accepted compromise solutions and sent people of knowledge and reputation as ambassadors who were not members of the KPJ." He opened special schools and got solid professionals relatively quickly. Diplomacy is as much art as it is craft. Today, people whose key qualification is loyalty to the leader and the ruling party are being sent to important positions around the world. "Much could be learned from Broz's time, but the experiences of the 'red gang' were lightly and thoughtlessly discarded," Jakšić believes.
He points out, however, that the global scene has changed dramatically, so he says that he believes that even the former Yugoslavia in the modern world would not have the reputation of Broz's time.
“Which only means that all states were created by the disintegration of the pale shadow of ex-Yu's reputation. Partialized, they are all peripheral players of the European scene today. It is simply impossible to talk about global power. Tito fought for participation in world leadership. The maximum that the politicians of the Western Balkans can achieve is to claim that they are the leaders of the region", he pointed out.
A country is only as strong as its allies
Miodrag Lekić believes that a country is only as strong as its allies. And that's where Tito's Yugoslavia stood well.
"Which did not prevent her from opting for very individual, bold and risky foreign policy moves. For example, the signing of the alliance with Turkey and Greece, members of NATO, in Ankara in 1953, which effectively brought Yugoslavia under the umbrella of the NATO pact. Or a year before, in 1952, in the time of opening to the West, Yugoslavia broke off diplomatic relations with the ever-influential Vatican", reminds Lekić.
Also, as he adds, Yugoslavia broke off all relations with Israel in 1967, leading strong political propaganda against the "Zionist state" in the Middle East.
When Koča chats with the President of the USA late into the night
Jakšić recalls how, as a correspondent for "Politika", he covered the Carter-Brezhnev summit in Vienna in June 1979.
The former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, during his eighteen-year rule (from 1964 to 1982), led a policy of intensive negotiations with the USA, within the framework of the so-called detente - thawing. With three American presidents, he met five times at summits. At the summit in Vienna, an agreement was signed with Jimmy Carter to reduce the number of launch devices for strategic missiles, as well as an agreement to ban the deployment of atomic weapons in space.
"After the meeting with the Soviet leader, the American president sent messages to four addresses of his closest allies - plus Tito. Can anyone today imagine a scene where his head of diplomacy chats late into the night with the president of the USA, as was the case with Koča Popović?", points out Jakšić.
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