The Dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and a Case for Studying ‘Post-Yugoslavia’

The retrospective work of political analysts studying “post-communism” issues has so far been limited to the study of each of the republics that were part of the Yugoslav federation. Now, more than 30 years after 1992, the study of “post-Yugoslavia” must move in the direction of examining the cultures of each of its members, both individually and in combination. Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo, the former members of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, shared a common history of “Yugoslavia” and “Communism,” but they have already gone their separate ways for more than 30 years, resulting in different economic and political outcomes. Now that the political and economic consequences have been realized, it is time to look to a different future, not back to the past. “Post-Yugoslavia,” meaning “after the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,” and post-Yugoslav studies, meaning “after the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation,” are not terms limited to politics, economics, language, or literature as they have been. In this paper, I will argue that, more than three decades after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, ‘Post-Yugoslavia’ studies have been primarily concerned with the political and economic spheres. It is time to shift the focus of scholarly research away from such tendencies and towards the social and cultural spheres, presenting as examples the common culture of the former Yugoslavia and its individual development after independence.