Professional Affiliation

Instructor, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley

Wilson Center Project

"Reform versus Stability: Ambassador Kennan and US Support for Liberalization in 1960s Yugoslavia"

Project Summary

My research analyses why 1960s economic reforms failed in Yugoslavia, and connects this failure to the country's subsequent violent dissolution. Based on a comparative archival analysis of reformers from Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, the project shows their shared commitment to decentralizing the federal state. However, decentralization unintentionally undermined their ability to compensate the “losers” from reforms across the country, like workers in mining and heavy industry, and the reformers' social network that could resist the security apparatus, the other losers. The 1971 purge of reformers delegitimized market reforms but strengthened hard-liners and the security apparatus.

Previous Terms

Aug 1, 2011 - Aug 31, 2011: "The Failure of Economic Reform and the Subsequent Dissolution of Yugoslavia"