State-Building and the Ontological Security Seeking: Croatia in the Context of the Disintegration of the SFRY
https://doi.org/10.31249/kgt/2024.06.09
Abstract
The article examines the process of state-building through the prism of the theory of ontological security. The idea that actors seek a stable image of themselves in the world allows for the consideration of threats to community security in non-physical dimensions. The author attempts to conceptualize the notion of “routinization” – the repetition of certain actions aimed at bracketing out anxiety and strengthening the ontological security of the community. Drawing on the ideas of A. Giddens, J. Mitzen, B. Steele, and F. Ejdus, the author argues that routine, constructed both by the actors themselves and through inter-actor interaction, is a fundamental method of coping with critical situations. At the same time, it is precisely critical situations that create opportunities for changing existing routines. The case of Croatia in the context of the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia illustrates the idea of state-building as the pursuit of ontological security.
The critical situation associated with the breakdown of the routines of “brotherhood and unity” was marked by the reactivation of ethnic tensions. It is thus most effective to analyze the development of this critical situation through the interaction of four actors: F. Tuđman, S. Milošević, Croats, and Serbs. F. Tuđman played a significant role in shaping the routines of “Franjonism” as a response to the critical situation. “Franjonism” was expressed through the opposition between Croats and Serbs, and the deconstruction of Yugoslavia’s past within Croatia. State-building in the spirit of “Franjonism,” however, not only increased the ontological security of Croats but also led to the emergence of a new critical situation between Croats and Serbs, the resolution of which escalated into a fullscale armed conflict.
About the Author
D. O. Rastegaev
Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAN)
Russian Federation
Daniil O. RASTEGAEV
Russian Federation
Daniil O. RASTEGAEV
Junior Researcher of the Department of Political Sciences
Nakhimovskiy Avenue, 51/21, Moscow, 117418
References
1. Bellamy A.J. (2003). The Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-old Dream? Manchester: Manchester University Press, 221 pp.
2. Berenskoetter F. (2014). Parameters of a national biography. European Journal of International Relations. Vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 262–288. DOI: 10.1177/1354066112445290.
3. Billig M. (1995). Banal Nationalism. London: Sage, 208 pp.
4. Bojicic-Dzelilovic V. (2015). The politics, practice and paradox of ‘ethnic security’ in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Stability: International Journal of Security and Development. Vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1–18. DOI: 10.5334/sta.ez.
5. Browning C.S., Joenniemi P. (2017). Ontological security, self-articulation and the securitization of identity. Cooperation and Conflict. Vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 31–47. DOI: 10.1177/0010836716653161.
6. Capoccia G., Kelemen R.D. (2007). The study of critical junctures: Theory, narrative, and counterfactuals in historical institutionalism. World Politics. Vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 341–369. DOI: 10.1017/ S0043887100020852.
7. Collier R.B., Collier D. (1991). Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 877 pp.
8. Đurašković S. (2016). National identity-building and the “Ustaša-nostalgia” in Croatia: the past that will not pass. Nationalities Papers. Vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 772–788. DOI: 10.1080/00905992.2016.1171301.
9. Ejdus F. (2020). Crisis and Ontological Insecurity. Serbia’s Anxiety over Kosovo’s Secession. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 202 pp.
10. Giddens A. (1991). Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 256 pp.
11. Goldstein I. (2017). Croatia and Croats in Yugoslavia. Resistance to Centralism. Yugoslavia from a Historical Perspective. Belgrade: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, pp. 126–162.
12. Goldstein I. (2024). View from Zagreb: Yugoslavia vanishes, socialism is destroying. In: Romanenko S.A. (ed.). Dissolution of Yugoslavia: 30 Years Ago. Moscow: INION RAS, pp. 156–172 (in Russian).
13. Gus’kova E.Yu. (2011). Yugoslav federation in 1960s. Struggle of the two trends. In: Yugoslavia in the 20th Century. Moscow: Indrik, pp. 701–734 (in Russian).
14. Heath O. (2016). Does multiparty competition increase ethnic security fears? Evidence from North India. Party Politics. Vol. 22, no. 6. pp. 746–757. DOI: 10.1177/1354068814560935.
15. Huysmans J. (1998). Security! What do you mean? From concept to thick signifier. European Journal of International Relations. Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 226–255. DOI: 10.1177/1354066198004002004.
16. Kaufman S.J. (1996). An ‘international’ theory of inter-ethnic war. Review of International Studies. Vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 149–171. DOI: 10.1017/s0260210500118352.
17. Khudaykulova A.V., Neklyudov N.Ya. (2019). The Concept of Ontological Security in International Political Discourse. MGIMO Review of International Relations. Vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 129–149 (in Russian). DOI: 10.24833/2071-8160-2019-6-69129-149.
18. Kinnvall C., Mitzen J. (2020). Anxiety, fear, and ontological security in world politics: Thinking with and beyond Giddens. International Theory. Vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 240–256. DOI: 10.1017/ S175297192000010X.
19. Laing R.D. (1960). The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 224 pp.
20. Malkki L. (1995). Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory and National Cosmology Among Hutu Refugees in Tanzania. London: University of Chicago Press, 352 pp.
21. Mälksoo M. (2015). “Memory must be defended”: Beyond the politics of mnemonical security. Security Dialogue. Vol. 46, no. 3. pp. 221–237. DOI: 10.1177/0967010614552549.
22. Martynova M.Yu. (1998). Balkan Crisis: Peoples and Politics. Moscow: Stary sad, 466 pp. (in Russian).
23. Mitzen J. (2006). Ontological security in world politics: State identity and the security dilemma. European Journal of International Relations. Vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 341–370. DOI: 10.1177/1354066106067346.
24. Pierson P. (2004). Politics in Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 208 pp.
25. Pivovarenko A.A. (2014). Formation of Statehood in Modern Croatia (1990–2001). PhD Thesis (History). Moscow: Institute of Slavic Studies, 312 pp. (in Russian).
26. Posen B.R. (1993). The security dilemma and ethnic conflict. Survival. Vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 27–47. DOI: 10.1080/00396339308442672.
27. Radcliffe S, Westwood S. (1996). Remaking the Nation: Place, Identity and Politics in Latin America. London: Routledge, 212 pp.
28. Radonic L. (2013). Croatia’s Politics of the Past during the Tuđman Era (1990– 1999) – Old Wine in New Bottles? Austrian History Yearbook. Vol. 44, pp. 234–254. Roe P. (2000). Former Yugoslavia: the security dilemma that never was? European Journal of International Relations. Vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 373–393. DOI: 10.1177/1354066100006003003.
29. Rose W. (2000). The security dilemma and ethnic conflict: Some new hypotheses. Security Studies. Vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 1–51. DOI: 10.1080/00396339308442672.
30. Rossdale C. (2015). Enclosing critique: the limits of ontological security. International Political Sociology. Vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 369–386.
31. Sadkovich J.J. (2010). Forging Consensus: How Franjo Tuđman Became an Authoritarian Nationalist. Review of Croatian History. Vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 7–35.
32. Sevastyanova Ya.V., Efremenko D.V. (2020). Securitization of memory and dilemma of mnemonic security. Political science (RU). No. 2, pp. 66–86 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31249/poln/2020.02.03.
33. Steele B. (2008). Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-identity and the IR State. New York: Routledge, 244 pp. Veselinović V. (2016). Franjo Tuđman and the Rightists. Politička misao. Vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 71–102 (in Serbo-Croatian).
34. Visser E., Duyvesteyn I. (2014). The irrelevance of the security dilemma for civil wars. Civil Wars. Vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 65–85. DOI: 10.1080/13698249.2014.904986.
35. Wendt A. (1995). Constructing international politics. International Security. Vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 71–81. DOI: 10.2307/2539217.
36. Zarakol A. (2010). Ontological (in) security and state denial of historical crimes: Turkey and Japan. International Relations. Vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 3–23. DOI: 10.1177/0047117809359040.
37. Žižić J. (2020). Franjo Tuđman, Christian Democracy and the Croatian Democratic Union. Obnovljeni Život. Vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 475–491 (in Serbo-Croatian). DOI: 10.31337/oz.75.4.3.
38. VII kongres… (1958). 7th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Beograd: Kultura, 450 pp. (in Serbo-Croatian).
Review
For citations:
Rastegaev D.O. State-Building and the Ontological Security Seeking: Croatia in the Context of the Disintegration of the SFRY. Outlines of global transformations: politics, economics, law. 2024;17(6):147–166. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31249/kgt/2024.06.09
Views:
54
Email this article 