Research: Italian and German foreign policy towards Serbia: from the fall of Milošević to the war in Ukraine
This research discusses the recent history of Italian and German politics towards Serbia in the post-Milošević era. Likewise, the object of analysis is the dynamics of Serbian foreign policy (various internal visions) and Belgrade’s reaction to Rome’s and Berlin’s strategies, proposals, ideas, and decisions. Therefore, the work tackles three national foreign policies as three points of view on different issues and challenges since 2000 regarding Serbia. For instance, as most significant dossiers, the research studies the following topics: the Serbia-EU accession process, the Montenegro referendum, the cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, unilaterally proclaimed Kosovo independence, Belgrade-Priština negotiations, and Serbian geostrategic position – that said harmonization with the EU security and foreign policy (relations with crucial supranational and national actors in international relations: NATO, Russia and China). The research considers the year 2000 as a watershed, the time of democratic changes, when the Serbian (Yugoslav) regime, previously involved in the 90s wars, after election fraud and successive massive riots, resulted in the overthrow. The new political elite came into power led by democratic, pro-European, liberal, civic, political forces supported by the Western world – the USA and the EU (Italy and Germany, among others). Moreover, in 2000, in Zagreb, the EU held the first Summit with the Western Balkans, defining the prospective accession. Furthermore, the goal is to reconstruct Italian and German positions via conditionality policy and EU intergovernmentalism amid the ongoing transition post-war period in Serbia. Hence, the aim is to compare Italian and German reactions to the Serbian maneuver and vice versa in the context of multiple crises. Part of the planned research activities are interviews with former ambassadors in Belgrade, Rome, and Berlin, Serbian and Italian foreign ministers, deputies, diplomatic advisors, and German MPs. Also, research will be conducted at the Zoran Đinđić Private Archive at the State Archives of Serbia. Besides, the work uses memoirs and monographies of Serbian, Italian, and German decision-makers as primary sources. The Italian and German diplomacy to Serbia will be analysed in-depth in texts and documents (stenographic reports, discourses on foreign policies, guidelines, official communications, speeches, messages on meetings and discussions at Camera dei deputati, Senato, Bundestag, OSCE, European Council, NATO, UN, and bilateral meetings) provided by Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, Auswärtiges Amt, the EU websites, and national media. Additionally, part of the research will be developed in Germany at the Institutes for Southeast European Studies.