Abstract
AbstractDuring the process of the dissolution of countries, there exist multiple critical junctures that lead to the partition of the territory, where the different groups cannot find a consensus on who rules and how to organize the government. The outcome of these crossroad decisions and political dynamics, who are often set-up centuries ago, either lead to conflict or relative peace between the nations and peoples who express opprobrium towards each other. The most recent cases of the divorce of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia have many similitudes and are therefore appropriate to attempt to theoretically analyze the essential difference between these two types of partitions. The Yugoslav situation led to War between the nations of Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Serbia, with an estimated 140,000 citizens of the former Yugoslav Republics killed, while the Czechoslovak case led to an innocuous settlement of differences and the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who joined the European Union ten years later and saw zero casualties.It is worthwhile to study the relationship between the dissolution of states and conflict using the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav cases for three main reasons. First, the similitude of the two instances enables one to identify variables that bring the outcome of having either peaceful relations or conflict between divorcing nations. Second, it is possible to compare the opposing disposition of variables with other countries that faced dissolution at one moment in history. Third, the sources and research for the two events are extensive, but very seldom put into conflict, since the causes for dissolution in both instances seem patent and explicit, contrasting significantly in scope and depth. This paper may be an occasion to disprove the notion that unworkable forces were at play here and demonstrate that the situation could have skewed in either direction, even though those structural forces are what lay the groundwork of the situation devolving into conflict.
Highlights
As post-Soviet states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia seem to have overcome extreme barriers to integration and joined the European Union in 2004, only fifteen years after the dissolution of the USSR
The countries of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia, on the other hand, have been a hotspot for conflict and disagreements since the 19th-century wave of nationalism that swept Europe, conflicts which culminated with the dissolution of the Soviet-Union and the start of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991
This only accounts for the demonizing of Albanians and Bosnians, the animosity towards Croats relates to religion, with the Catholic Church’s involvement in the Second World War in the Serbian massacre, Serb clerics initiated the anti-Croat discourse by exhuming tombs symbolically and instrumentalizing orthodox values against the Croats
Summary
As post-Soviet states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia seem to have overcome extreme barriers to integration and joined the European Union in 2004, only fifteen years after the dissolution of the USSR Both countries are different in economic development, have discrepant political doctrines and even displayed different attitudes towards democracy, in the past. The autocratic government of Vladimír Mečiar in 1992 and the dictatorship of Jozef Tiso in 1939 in Slovakia contrast the long-standing liberal-democratic tradition in the Czech Republic They both, albeit, still have very convergent customs, a similar language, have fought against the most expansionist empires in history to preserve their identity, and are the two countries who have the most favourable opinion of each other in Europe. From a structural standpoint, the paper will delve into the contribution of ethnic divide and nationalism, historical legacies left behind by dominating Empires and the geographic and political dimension that contributed most to conflict arising
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