Imre Szilágyi CV
He was born in Budapest in 1949, took a degree in History and Librarianship (1979), and in Ancient Greek and Latin (1985) at the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences. Owner of Ph.D. (C.Sc.) diploma of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1996. Book appraiser at the State Book Distributor Company (1967–1980), editor of the Lexicon of World Literature at the Akadémiai Kiadó (1982–1990), Senior Research Fellow at the Teleki László Institute Centre for Foreign Policy Studies (1992–2006), and at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs since 2007. His Research Fields are the Politics and History of former Yugoslav Republics. Main publications: Déli szomszédaink története [History of Hungary’s Southern Border Countries]. Budapest: Bereményi Kiadó, 1994. (with Dénes Sokcsevits and Károly Szilágyi); Az önálló és demokratikus Szlovénia létrejötte [Birth of Independent and Democratic Slovenia]. Budapest: Teleki László Alapítvány, 1998.; Croatia and the European Union. Foreign Policy Review, No. 1. (2002). pp. 208–227.; The inability to compromise and the international community in Bosnia and Kosovo. News of the Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia, No. 1. (2007). pp. 10–12.; New Dimensions of Cooperation: Hungary and Slovakia’s Joint Involvement in the Western Balkans. (with Tomáš Strážay) Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association 2009. http://www.sfpa.sk/dokumenty/publikacie/251
Abstract
Political and geopolitical changes in the territory of former Yugoslavia since 1990
The former Yugoslavia has broken because there were many differences among the republics of former Yugoslavia. Slovenia had the most developed economic and social structure, while Kosovo was one of Europe's poorest and most underdeveloped regions in Europe. There were also differences in the political traditions and political culture among the republics and we’ve seen the east-west and north-south cleavage. The region’s biggest problems were the nation-building process, the unsolved Kosovo issue and the special problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Although there were very important political and geopolitical changes in the region during the last 20 years, the problems and the differences are almost the same. Slovenia became a successfull member of the EU, but Kosovo’s future is very uncertain. There are unsolved border issues and the nation-building process in Bosnia and Hercegovina is unfinished. The only hope is that all have the same aim: they would like to become a member of the EU. And this is why the cooperation among the new independent states is now better than before.