EU Influence and the Politics of Memory Postwar Croatia & Serbia in a Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This thesis argues that the EU has indirectly influenced domestic perceptions of the past in postwar Croatia and Serbia through these states’ desire for EU membership. Informed by EU conditionality criteria, which include democratic policies, regional cooperation, and issuelinkage with the ICTY, political elites have tailored new discourses that confront past atrocities to improve EU trajectory. However, the depth of this process—called “the politics of memory,” has differed in both states primarily because Serbia was unable to extradite their war criminals at the pace of Croatia. This was the result of negative patterns that stemmed from the dynamics of regime transition, and the strength of old regime spoilers and nationalist parties who have perpetuated myths and discourses of victimisation in the new regime. In addition, desire for EU membership itself has fluctuated because of greater contest at the elite level between reformist and nationalist politicians