Transmission of Defining Historical Events into Modern Strategic Narratives: Serbia’s Case

Mitić, Aleksandar (2025) Transmission of Defining Historical Events into Modern Strategic Narratives: Serbia’s Case. In: 150 years since the Herzegovina Uprising: impact on regional security and European geopolitics. Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd, pp. 83-90. ISBN 978-86-7067-368-7

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Abstract

Strategic narratives are particularly important in the era of multipolarisation, as nations, states, and organisations vie for legitimacy in an uncertain, fluctuating, and dynamic transformation of the world order. However, while future-oriented, strategic narratives are built on an understanding of key events and processes that have shaped the past, as well as those that contour the present. The article identifies several key groups of historical elements of the modern Serbian strategic narrative. First, political independence and sovereignty, sacrifice, and struggle against oppression, discrimination, and occupation (from the 1389 Kosovo battle, through the 1875 “Herzegovina Uprising”, to the 1999 NATO aggression). Second, a form of East-West “hedging” (from centuries of living between two empires to eastward hedging in a Western surrounding and the legacy of non-alignment). Third, a catalyst role in the transformation of the world order (the “Herzegovina Uprising” as a pivotal entry point leading to global order changes following the First World War; NATO aggression as a key event that initiated the process of multipolarisation). Strategic narratives can take three main forms (understanding of the world system, one’s own role, and concrete policies), and effective strategic narratives align all three. Serbia strongly believes that the world system based on the UN Charter must be preserved against deformations caused by the Western “rules-based world order“, which “creative interpretations” of international law based on “sui generis” have caused grave harm to Serbia’s national interests (the 1999 NATO aggression without UN Security Council approval and the 2008 “Kosovo UDI” in breach of the UN Charter). Thus, Serbia supports multipolarisation and a host of policies (military neutrality, non-sanctioning of Russia, and building a China-Serbia Community with a Shared Future in the New Era), which align with this process and its strategic narrative. Serbia’s case exemplifies how strategic narratives connect historical events with current foreign policy tactics and strategies in the current geopolitical environment to shape public perceptions and justify decisions. It also paves the way for further scholarly research on the interplay between memory transmission and strategic narratives.

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