Review article
GREAT SCHOLARLY AUTHORITIES AND SMALL NATIONS – THE FORMATION OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES ON FRANJO TUĐMAN AND THE HOMELAND WAR
Robert Skenderović
; Croatian Institute of History, Department for the History of Slavonia, Syrmia and Baranja, Slavonski Brod, Croatia
Abstract
The causes for the emergence of the narrative on the equal assignment of blame and the reasons why this narrative has become dominant in Western historiography are ascertained in this work. The fundamental objective is to analyse the perspective from which Western European and American political and academic circles view the colapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia’s role in the events which transpired from 1990 to 1995. With some individual exceptions, writers from Europe and America have generally taken the stance that the war in the territory of Yugoslavia was a civil war. Herein the insistence on the civil nature of the war in Croatia is also aimed at proving the equal culpability of all warring sides (Croatian and Serbian) for its outbreak. By the same token, it is apparent that Western historiography and current affairs analysis makes very little use of scholarly works generated by Croatian historiography, which are generally in agreement that in 1991 the Republic of Croatia was subject to aggression. The standpoints of Western historians and others (so-called “Balkan experts”) do not substantially differ from the policies which the United States and the European Union implement toward Croatia and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. This points to the conclusion that historical research in the West is under the great influence of the views of political elites.
Keywords
Homeland War; collapse of the SFRY; Serbian aggression; equal blame; Franjo Tuđman
Hrčak ID:
150030
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2015.
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