On Pan-Slavism, Brotherhood, and Mythology: The Imagery of Contemporary Geopolitical Discourse in Serbia

Vukasović, Dejana and Stojadinović, Miša (2023) On Pan-Slavism, Brotherhood, and Mythology: The Imagery of Contemporary Geopolitical Discourse in Serbia. In: Pan-Slavism and Slavophilia in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 123-153. ISBN 978-3-031-17874-0

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Abstract

This chapter seeks to analyse the impact of Pan-Slavic ideas on the framing of Serbia’s contemporary collective identity. More specifically, it attempts to answer the question of whether, in what ways, and to what extent the Serbian political elite from the period of the 2000 democratic changes in Serbia onwards have framed Serbia’s foreign policy, and thereby also its identity, by mobilizing Pan-Slavic ideas. In so doing, the chapter focuses on discursive manifestations of Slavic solidarity through the ‘special relations’ between Serbia and Russia. It is argued that Pan-Slavic ideas are manifested as a mythologized attachment to Russia with varying degrees of ‘sentiment intensity’ depending on particular contexts. Drawing on critical geopolitics, the chapter sheds light on how Serbian political elites have constructed narratives about the Serbian-Russian ‘special relationship’, how they have represented this relationship to explain crises, and how they have developed strategies and found solutions to these situations.

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