This Selected Issues paper and Statistical Appendix analyzes developments in Croatia’s banking sector since independence in 1991, focusing on the effects of independence, war, transition, and the bank rehabilitation process. Changes in market structure, concentration, and ownership, as well as financial performance are highlighted. The paper reviews the current legal environment governing banking operations and improvements needed to strengthen the legislative framework. Some forward-looking conclusions are presented. The paper also examines selected aspects of Croatia’s export performance.
This book assesses the formation of Croatian national identity in the 1990s. It develops a novel framework, calling into question both primordial and modernist approaches to nationalism and national identity, before applying that framework to Croatia. In doing so, the book provides a new way of thinking about how national identity is formed and why it is so important. An explanation is given of how Croatian national identity was formed in the abstract, via a historical narrative that traces centuries of yearning for a national state. The book shows how the government, opposition parties, dissident intellectuals and diaspora groups offered alternative accounts of this narrative in order to legitimise contemporary political programmes based on different versions of national identity. It then looks at how these debates were manifested in social activities as diverse as football, religion, economics and language. This book attempts to make an important contribution to both the way we study nationalism and national identity, and our understanding of post-Yugoslav politics and society.
"Croatia is today popularly known as a beautiful country, with an excellent soccer team, but the rest of its long history is still not well known outside scholarly circles. It is less known for example that Croatia started as an ancient kingdom established in the 7th century. It lost its independence in the 11th century and had a troubled history until the first democratic elections in 1990 and independence in 1991. Since the Great Schism in the 11th century, Croatia has been the easternmost country of the Catholic West facing the Orthodox East. Attacked by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century, it has been called ever since Antemurale Christianitatis (The Bulwark of Christianity). Croatia went through difficult times during the two World Wars and in the inter-war and the post-war periods until it won its independence and later gained membership to the European Union in 2013. This book reveals important information about its history, the struggles it endured to gain independence, the key problems of post-communist social and economic transition, and prospects for the future, summarized at the end as an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external threats and opportunities. The book is divided into two parts, "Croatian History Timeline" and "Past in Present and Future", because the Croatian past informs its present and future in a profound way. There are few sources in English that present so many until-now unknown aspects of this European country as does this book. It may be said that it is the first reliable and objective guide to give essential understanding of the Republic of Croatia published so far in the English language"--
Balkan Holocausts? compares and contrasts Serbian and Croatian propaganda from 1986 to 1999, analyzing each group's contemporary interpretations of history and current events. It offers a detailed discussion of holocaust imagery and the history of victim-centered writing in nationalism theory, including the links between the comparative genocide debate, the so-called holocaust industry, and Serbian and Croatian nationalism. No studies on Yugoslavia have thus far devoted significant space to such analysis.
In Amoral Communities, Mila Dragojević examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. She identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal. Dragojević augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. The communities on which she focuses are Croatia in the 1990s and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case Dragojević considers how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. Reporting on the varying wartime experiences of individuals, she adds depth, emotion, and objectivity to the historical and socioeconomic conditions that shaped each conflict. Furthermore, as Amoral Communities describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals' freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, Dragojević finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.
Why did Yugoslavia fall apart? Was its violent demise inevitable? Did its population simply fall victim to the lure of nationalism? How did this multinational state survive for so long, and where do we situate the short life of Yugoslavia in the long history of Europe in the twentieth century? A History of Yugoslavia provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive synthesis of the political, cultural, social, and economic life of Yugoslavia—from its nineteenth-century South Slavic origins to the bloody demise of the multinational state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Calic takes a fresh and innovative look at the colorful, multifaceted, and complex history of Yugoslavia, emphasizing major social, economic, and intellectual changes from the turn of the twentieth century and the transition to modern industrialized mass society. She traces the origins of ethnic, religious, and cultural divisions, applying the latest social science approaches, and drawing on the breadth of recent state-of-the-art literature, to present a balanced interpretation of events that takes into account the differing perceptions and interests of the actors involved. Uniquely, Calic frames the history of Yugoslavia for readers as an essentially open-ended process, undertaken from a variety of different regional perspectives with varied composite agenda. She shuns traditional, deterministic explanations that notorious Balkan hatreds or any other kind of exceptionalism are to blame for Yugoslavia’s demise, and along the way she highlights the agency of twentieth-century modern mass society in the politicization of differences. While analyzing nuanced political and social-economic processes, Calic describes the experiences and emotions of ordinary people in a vivid way. As a result, her groundbreaking work provides scholars and learned readers alike with an accessible, trenchant, and authoritative introduction to Yugoslavia's complex history.
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, on the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the southeast, sharing a maritime border with Italy.
Balkan Legacies is a study of the aftermath of war and state socialism in the contemporary Balkans. The authors look at the inescapable inheritances of the recent past and those that the present has to deal with. The book’s key theme is the interaction, often subliminal, of the experiences of war and socialism in contemporary society in the region. Fifteen contributors approach this topic from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and through a variety of interpretive lenses, collectively drawing a composite picture of the most enduring legacies of conflict and ideological transition in the region, without neglecting national and local peculiarities. The guiding questions addressed are: what is the relationship between memories of war, dictatorship (communist or fascist), and present-day identity—especially from the perspective of peripheral and minority groups and individuals? How did these components interact with each other to produce the political and social culture of the Balkan Peninsula today? The answers show the ways in which the experiences of the latter part of the twentieth century have defined and shaped the region in the twenty-first century.
Stroll Dubrovnik's ancient walls, hike the idyllic Julian Alps, and set sail on the glimmering Adriatic: with Rick Steves on your side, Croatia and Slovenia can be yours! Inside Rick Steves Croatia & Slovenia you'll find: Comprehensive coverage for spending a week or more in Croatia and Slovenia, with side trips to Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites Top sights and hidden gems, from Roman ruins in the heart of bustling Split to stunning waterfalls and mountains in Slovenia How to connect with culture: Taste wines at a vineyard in Hvar, tour museums and Baroque churches in Zagreb, and sample seafood fresh from the Adriatic at an open-air market in Dubrovnik Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a glass of local wine Self-guided walking tours of lively towns and fascinating museums Detailed maps for exploring on the go Useful resources including a packing list, Slovenian and Croatian phrase books, a historical overview, and recommended reading Over 800 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down Complete, up-to-date information on Zagreb, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Istria, Split, Hvar, Korcula, Dubrovnik, the Bay of Kotor, Mostar, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, the Julian Alps, Logarska Dolina and the Northern Valleys, Ptuj, Maribor, the Karst, Piran, and more Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Croatia & Slovenia.
