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- Financial Networks in the Shadow of Economic Nationalism: A Comparative Study of the Territories of
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- Slovenian Verbal Valency: Syntax, Semantics, and Use
- Systems of care and education of children with sensory disabilities in the first and second Yugoslav
- Everyday life and life course of old people living in poverty
- Prospects and Boundaries of International Friendship: Polish-Yugoslav Relations between 1956 and 196
- Sin, Shame, Symptom: suicide and its perceptions in Slovenia (1850–2000)
- Slovenian history on a small scale. Continuity and change in a village community in a long-term pers
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Prospects and Boundaries of International Friendship:
Polish-Yugoslav Relations between 1956 and 1968
Code: Z6-4605
Sponsor: Slovenian Research Agency
Period: 1. 10. 2022 - 30. 9. 2024
Head: dr. Maja Lukanc
A cursory glance at postwar Polish and Yugoslav newspapers reveals that friendship was one of the most frequently used words to describe relations between Poland and Yugoslavia. This project does not dismiss the friendship discourse as a common part of political and diplomatic vernacular, but employs the concept of international friendship as a meaningful analytical tool to study Polish-Yugoslav relations between 1956 and 1968. Following the conceptual framework of international friendship outlined by international relation theorists, the project explores how collective identities, trust, and emotions interacted with strategic and material interests in Polish-Yugoslav relations and influenced the behaviours, interactions, and decision-making at different political and social levels.
The project explores prospects and boundaries of international friendship in postwar Polish-Yugoslav relations through three case studies:
- The first case study examines what role the LEGACY OF THE WORLD II played in bilateral relations and how frequent reminders of common war experiences fostered collective identities and friendship bonds between Poles and Yugoslavs at multiple levels.
- The second case study investigates how pursuing SEPARATE ROADS TO SOCIALISM bolstered cooperation between Polish and Yugoslav political elites and state/party officials, and how their institutional and personal connections helped to generate mutual trust and support in the domestic and international realm.
- The third case study focuses on TRANSNATIONAL ENCOUNTERS and explores how cross-border interactions of Polish and Yugoslav exchange students and tourists contributed to growing familiarity between Poles and Yugoslavs and shaped friendship bonds between the two countries.
All case studies address the importance of both personal bonds and institutional ties as a source of stability, familiarity, and thus friendship. They build on the premise that Poles and Yugoslavs invested in bilateral relationships as citizens with agency and as such helped to shape bilateral friendship and thus the idea of the socialist world. The use of both a top-down and a bottom-up approach allows an analysis of the motivations and agency of the actors and explore their impact on formation, maintenance and dissolution of friendship bonds. The latter are tracked by exploring practices of friendship, such as symbolic and commemorative acts, privileged access to information, high tolerance of bad news, acts of solidarity and friendship discourse.
Objectives
A serious consideration of international friendship as a phenomenon in Polish-Yugoslav relations will contribute to a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the political and social complexities of the East and Southeast European communist regimes and their foreign policies.
- By examining identity- and trust-building processes between the two states and their peoples, the project will reveal a complex interplay between domestic and international factors in bilateral relations.
- By observing interactions of different political and social levels involved in Polish-Yugoslav cooperation, the project will add a bilateral dimension to the understanding of a process of constant negotiations between rulers and those ruled in communist regimes.
- By exploring the integrating and mobilising power of international friendship, embedded in both institutional and personal ties, the project will demonstrate how bonds of friendship influence resilience to conflict and external pressures in bilateral practices.
- The study of the Polish-Yugoslav dyad will make an important contribution to the empirical research of international friendship by extending its geographical and ideational scope to the area of Cold War Eastern and South-Eastern European communisms.
