Original scientific paper
The Europeanization of Croatia’s Security Discourse
Damir Grubiša
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Europeanization – as the process of standardization of public policies in order
to provide a common ground for the new modus operandi in politics and of the
polity itself – requires an overall reshaping of the political discourse in the acceding
countries during the process of EU accession. This means the reshaping
of the basic political concepts and political paradigms under way in one country.
Security is one of the main concepts upon which the existence of a polity
is based. The way in which security is conceived determines the political
strategy, political tactics and political activities pertinent to the goal set up and
formulated in a security concept. Croatia, as an acceding country, needs to refurbish
its basic political values, and security certainly falls within this frame.
Croatia adopted its National Security Strategy in 2002 and this security concept
was an obvious product of concrete circumstances, experiences and political
discourse of the time. As the author asserts, the concept of security laid
down in this security strategy belongs to an obsolete frame of mind, arising
from a traumatic decade of ethnic wars, nationalism and a controversial transition.
Croatia has emerged from the post-conflict traumatic experience and the
period of an authoritarian transition, in which the adaptation to new values was
slow and turbulent. The National Security Strategy of the Republic of Croatia
reflects these contradictions and controversies in its society and its international
environment. This work claims that the national security concept of Croatia
relied greatly on the classical approach to state security and did not reflect the
latest development in the field of strategic thinking. As an example, the author
points to the gap between the Croatian national security concept and its basic
values and the concept of human security, as laid down in the UNDP basic
documents on human development. In addition, it did not reflect the concept
of cooperative security that requires from a nation to work in an international
context in order to avoid transnational threats. Croatia needs the Europeanization
of the security discourse and the reformulation of a new National Security
Strategy, pertinent to its membership in the NATO and in the EU.
Keywords
Europeanization; National Security Strategy of Croatia; security discourse; NATO; EU
Hrčak ID:
55629
URI
Publication date:
5.5.2010.
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