Ljubodrag Dimic

"Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav Foreign Policy, and the Shaping of the Concept of European Security and Cooperation 1968 – 1975"

This paper is based on newly accessible archival sources coming from the Yugoslav/Serbian archives. The main goal of this study is the meticulous analysis of the Yugoslav foreign policy at that time and, especially, Josip Broz Tito’s contribution to the process of shaping, coordinating, and realization of the concept of European security and cooperation.
Military intervention of the Warsaw Pact countries in Czechoslovakia in 1968 triggered radical changes in the Yugoslav foreign-policy orientation towards both of the Superpowers. The fear from possible military intervention of the Eastern Bloc in Yugoslavia stirred serious doubts among the Yugoslav leadership, forcing them to be more engaged in the process of resolving European security issues. Since then close relationship with the USSR and other socialist countries had entered a phase of deep mistrust, while recently strained relations with the US had been significantly improved. Josip Broz Tito, drawing far-sighted lessons from the previously accumulated experience of decades of leadership, had learned that the best way to preserve his own national interests on world arena was to put them into the firm framework of general principles. Ever since the beginning of the 1970s the sense of insecurity and the question of "reliable guarantees" had become one of the top foreign-policy priorities of the Yugoslav state. In order to realize this aim, Tito made many official visits to European capitals (17 visits), at the same time holding formal receptions for European dignitaries in Belgrade, and intensive consultations with leaders of nonaligned and Mediterranean states. As it was the case with the Great Powers, Yugoslavia was seeking a framework which could guarantee the long-term solution of sensitive European issues, inviolability of state borders, which could become one of the confirmations of the gained state legitimacy.