Beyond National Interests: Identity Conflict and Serbia’s Neutrality toward the Crisis in Ukraine

Abstract

Many view the crisis in Ukraine as the most dangerous challenge to European security since the end of the Cold War. While almost all other European countries condemned the Russian annexation of the Crimea, Serbia chose to remain neutral. Serbia's decision makers have explained their policy as a rational pursuit of national interests. In this article I argue that this account is incomplete without an analysis of Serbia's various identities. In particular , I suggest that the ongoing crisis in ukraine has amplified an existing conflict between two powerful collective identity narratives in Serbia: the one of belonging to Europe and the other of brotherhood with Russia. To cope with this internal identity conflict and to reduce the cognitive dissonance thus created, Serbia adopted a neutral policy as a form of avoidance .