Tag: Politics

Balkans, Balkanska posla, Travel

Porto Montenegro: the discrete charm of the Fully Automated Luxury Oligarchy

I arrived to Porto Montenegro’s swanky Regent hotel on the night of the first round of Montenegrin presidential elections which may, finally, end the decades-long reign of Milo Đukanović in the country. The life of this luxury residential-commercial development made for super-yacht set, which replaced an old Austro-Hungarian, then Yugoslav naval yard, in a lot of ways captured Đukanović’s appeal, despite his party’s and personal … Continue reading Porto Montenegro: the discrete charm of the Fully Automated Luxury Oligarchy

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Politics, Serbia

Serbia, sanctioned

Since Serbia is remembering 30th anniversary since very harsh sancions were imposed on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and as we are being pressured to impose sanctions in Russia, I am reminded of my earliest memories, which took place by the Belgrade train station. It was hot summers’ day in 1992, and I was four, throwing a tantrum when I was supposed to be saying … Continue reading Serbia, sanctioned

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Balkans, Life, Politics, Travel

Warrior Posing

Ever since the debates about current or imminent “fascism” and “antifascism” (or Antifascism™)  became popular again, I came to think about my grandad, who as a committed communist before WWII and then a partisan during it would probably have more to say than those engaging in these debates now. He was a bit of an oddity as a bourgeois lawyer/communist in Nikšić, a town in … Continue reading Warrior Posing

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Politics

All is Fair in Love and “Hybrid War”: How “Russian Interference” and “Fake News” Narratives Are Used to Further Stalinist Causes in an EU Candidate Country

A dispute involving a church and government in a mountainous European country of 600,000 people, is hardly the stuff that is normally deemed relevant  in the context of global politics. However what has been going on in Montenegro in the past two months should be an indicator of how governments, in their attempt to cling on to power, can and will weaponize their legal systems … Continue reading All is Fair in Love and “Hybrid War”: How “Russian Interference” and “Fake News” Narratives Are Used to Further Stalinist Causes in an EU Candidate Country

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Pokretači

Pokretači #70 Mladen Lišanin – Institut za Političke Studije / Beograd

Mladen Lišanin, iz Instituta za Političke Studije, o svom putu od muzike do akademskog rada, razlici između analitičara i onih koji se akademski bave političkim temama, kao i sjaju i bedi slavske političke analitike. Beleške Herni Kisindžer – Diplomatija Ako vas interesuju teme vezena za akademski život u Srbiji poslušajte i epizode sa dr Aleksandrom Alorić (fizika), dr Jelenom Žarković Rakić (ekonomija) i Dejanom Ritićem … Continue reading Pokretači #70 Mladen Lišanin – Institut za Političke Studije / Beograd

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Politics, Serbia

Serbia and Albania: Know Thy Neighbour

In October 2017, I went to Tirana for a conference about relations between Serbia and Albania, jointly organised by the Albanian Institute for International Studies and the European Movement in Serbia. One of the topics of the conference was the public perception of the relationship between the two countries, which made me instinctively shudder. Despite the recent displays of friendship between the Albanian Prime Minister … Continue reading Serbia and Albania: Know Thy Neighbour

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Politics, Serbia

“Serbsplaining” the West

From the early days of modern Serbia, and arguably before, Serbian perceptions and expectations of ‘the West’ were in many ways inextricable from how Serbians perceived themselves. Serbian uprisings against the Ottomans were from the outset imagined as a way for Serbia to re-join and catch-up with its Christian brethren from the West, who were expected to embrace it with open hands. After the last … Continue reading “Serbsplaining” the West

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Politics, Serbia, Serbiana/Srpska posla

Serbian elites’ long war on clarity

Although it is 170 years since a simplified Serbian language became the norm, Serbian elites still prefer muddying the rhetorical waters  In 1847, after three decades of struggle, Vuk Karadžić and his allies, Petar Petrović Njegoš, Branko Radičević and Đura Daničić, decisively won the battle for the standardisation of Serbian folk language and its literary use. Their victory was achieved by proving that the language … Continue reading Serbian elites’ long war on clarity

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Politics, Serbia, Serbiana/Srpska posla

Ana Brnabić: the least bad news for Serbia

Appointment of a competent pro-Western openly gay female PM is a good thing, even though Serbia’s democracy is sliding back Today, after a long unwarranted delay Serbia’s president/PM Aleksandar Vučić decided to appoint Ana Brnabić as his successor who is to from the new Serbian government. This function will be almost ceremonial, as Vučić clearly showed intention to keep all the reigns in his hands. … Continue reading Ana Brnabić: the least bad news for Serbia

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Balkanska posla, Belgrade, Photography, Politics, Serbia

April in Belgrade: Photos from pro-democracy protests

After a sort of Easter break, the protests for media freedom and democracy continue today. They started on 3 April, after PM Aleksandar Vučić won the Presidential election, and  gathered large crowds across Serbia demanding free media, democratic control, fair elections and social justice. In Belgrade, on Saturday 9 April there were a few tens of thousands marching from the main Serbian government building in … Continue reading April in Belgrade: Photos from pro-democracy protests

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Politics

Europe on the brink

As we stand now, at the brink of Grexit, it may be good to think about how the situation escalated so quickly and so disastrously, before we look at the many existential challenges facing the EU, and Europe as a continent in the not too distant future. Although there are many elements to the tragedy, with many of them beyond my knowledge and capability to analyse, … Continue reading Europe on the brink

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Politics

If you don’t want to be treated like a colony maybe you should stop acting like one

Last few weeks were probably the most interesting in the recent European political history, as there actually emerged a force that wants to take its country and promises seriously. The greatest value of Syriza are not the rather inflammatory (and somewhat true) invocations of neo-colonial treatment of Southern countries by the Euro-North (read Germany), nor the realisations that the Euro-North has rather profited from the … Continue reading If you don’t want to be treated like a colony maybe you should stop acting like one

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