Reflection of the 1999 NATO Agression in the Strategic Narratives of Global Powers and the Context of Multipolarity

Mitić, Aleksandar (2024) Reflection of the 1999 NATO Agression in the Strategic Narratives of Global Powers and the Context of Multipolarity. In: History and Cultural Memory. Institute for Political Studies, Belgrade, pp. 393-416. ISBN 978-86-7419-396-9

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Abstract

Over the last decades, memory politics has become an important focus of academic study, and among regional cases, a particular significance has been given to the Balkan cases due to the conflicts in the 1990s. Yet, this focus has been mainly devoted to how ex-Yugoslav societies (mis)use(d) memory politics, rather than on how they relate to great powers’ geopolitical considerations and policies. In this paper, we analyze how memory politics played a role in the perceptions and actions of the world’s leading geopolitical actors during the 1999 bombings, and how they interpret the event in today’s strategic narratives, in the context of multipolarity. We conclude that memory politics played an important part in NATO’s crafting of the 1999 aggression against Yugoslavia, but also in the perception and reception of the bombings outside of the political West, most notably in Russia and China. They also played a strong role over the last quarter of the century, strongly embedded in the rise of multipolarity. Today, the 1999 NATO aggression remains a particularly defining moment in the narratives – and memory politics - of those who had been “humiliated” in 1999 – Russia and China. On the other side, the strategic narrative of the “victorious” NATO countries appears to be on the defensive, toned down, and mostly focusing on blaming Moscow’s memory politics for the Ukrainian conflict.

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