For decades The Ministry for State Security (STASI) in the German Democratic Republic attentively observed Tito’s policy in Yugoslavia, as they perceived it as a socialist experiment that could prove harmful to the Soviet-type orthodoxy, on which their own totalitarian regime was based as well. The attention did not lessen even after Tito’s death and in the 1980s, the question whether Yugoslavia was capable of surviving with its economic and ethnical problems was quite noticeable. The STASI analysts based their reports on their own observations as well as on the information received from the East and agents infiltrated in Western political, military and espionage spheres, especially in the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis of the STASI documents, therefore, offers a global insight into the Yugoslav reality through the lenses of both blocs and shows that its complexity was never truly understood by neither of them.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1539044292
The monograph is the first comprehensive biography of the first Slovenian president Milan Kučan. Significant part of the book is dedicated to the Kučan’s activity in the field of foreign policy, which was implemented through several channels during the independence process of the Republic of Slovenia. In this context, he discusses interpersonal relations with the other two actors in the area of international relations, Prime Minister Lojze Peterle and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel. Several meeetings between Kučan and foreign statesmen and diplomats, such as G. De Michelis, F. Cossiga, H. D. Genscher, J. Santer, J. Delores, F. Mitterrand, J. Baker and »European troika«, are described in the book. The author also discusses Kučan’s stance towards Slovenia’s succession to international treaties and the question of revision of the Osimo agreements with Italy, and the entry of Slovenia into the EU and NATO, as well as cooperation with the former republics of the SFRY, the integration of Central European countries, relations with Russia and the USA, etc.
COBISS.SI-ID: 280164352
The article deals with the secret relations between Yugoslavia and Israel, which in the 1980s fell prevalently under the domain of the Slovene State Security Services, and which subsequently, during the period of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, evolved into collaboration between Slovenia and Israel. The first secret contacts were established as early as during the formation of the Jewish state in Palestine and did not lapse even when Yugoslavia severed its diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. In the 1980s, the secret relations were centred on economic and intelligence cooperation, while serving sporadically as a secret channel for political contacts as well. The study is based on archival documents of the Diplomatic Archives in Belgrade and on previously un-researched documents of the State Security Services of Slovenia, which allowed us to investigate the secret contacts in terms of contents as well as methods and tactics of intelligence service operation. The material consulted has also proven to be a surprisingly rich source of information about the history of the Middle-East crisis. The secret Yugoslav-Israeli contacts are analysed within the context of Yugoslavia’s foreign policy as well as with regard to the positions of its diplomatic services towards Israel and the Middle-East crisis.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1540004292
The article focuses on the relationship between Great Britain and Yugoslavia in the first half of the 1980s with the aim of providing a more comprehensive picture of the attitude adopted by the Western powers towards the nascent Yugoslav crisis. During the period following Tito’s death, which was still strongly marked by the Cold War, the relations between non-aligned Yugoslavia and Britain were at their peak, as evidenced by a number of high-level official visits. As in previous years, the British strategic interest was more than obvious: to keep Yugoslavia united, non-aligned and (at least a little longer) socialist; Yugoslavia was perceived as a critical element for the stability in Southeast Europe and the protection of the Mediterranean from the Soviet Union. Based on archival materials from the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister’s Office, diplomatic dispatches from Federal Secretariat for Foreign Affairs in Belgrade and some memoirs, the article explains the political significance that Yugoslavia had in multilateral and bilateral relations, Britain’s view on Yugoslavia’s political and economic reforms, and how British diplomatic representatives assessed Yugoslavia’s domestic political conditions and the rising conflicts between the republics.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1540005316
The article sheds light on the main characteristics of the relations between the Catholic Church and the state in Slovenia in the following three consecutive periods: the period from the end of WWII to the beginning of democratization (1945–1989), the period marked by the process of attaining political independence of the Republic of Slovenia (1989–1991), and the period from the declaration of independence in 1991 until today. The article gives a schematic outline of the most important characteristics of the aforementioned periods, with the special features of the first two periods crucially affecting the current relations between the Catholic Church and the state in the Republic of Slovenia. The author discusses the role of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Slovenia in the process of dissolution of Yugoslavia. At the beginning, Vatican diplomacy was very careful and tried to avoid any clear statements, but after the initial conflicts in Slovenia and Croatia the Vatican abandoned its “neutral” orientation and opted for activities in favour of both republics being officially recognised as independent states. At the same time, the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Slovenian independence were for the Church a chance to solve some of its own problems and to affirm some of its interests in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1536256452