ABSTRACT

For about 20 years after World War II, Balkan studies was submerged. Between 1945 and 1947, the idea for a Balkan confederation between Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, and possibly Hungary and Greece was revived on the initiative of Josip Broz Tito, the all-powerful leader of the communist-led Liberation Front in Yugoslavia. In terms of geopolitical affiliation, the countries in the Balkans fell into three categories–NATO members Greece and Turkey; communist Romania and Bulgaria; and non-aligned Yugoslavia and maverick Albania. The post-World War II Balkan project lacked the ideological coherence, political muscle and visionary breath of its interwar, communist and liberal, predecessors. The constitution of AIESEE triggered the foundation of Balkan and Southeast European institutes across the region, starting with Romania, then Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece. As a Bulgarian medievalist commented, "The history of the Balkan peoples in the Middle Age has been studied in relation to national history, and very little for itself.