CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Miljkovic, Marko |
|---|---|
| Title | Tito's Proliferation Puzzle: The Yugoslav Nuclear Program, 1948-1970 |
| Summary | The research presented in this dissertation provides a detailed analysis of the long and arduous evolution of a nuclear program in a developing country which desired to break out of the backwardness, join the elite club of great powers and play among the equals in Cold War political games and competitions. Starting this journey in the late 1940s without a single precondition for success except a sheer determination, by the mid-1960s Yugoslavia managed to master the most sensitive technologies, only to completely dismantle the entire nuclear program after the ratification of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970. Important discovery is that in the interplay of various incentives that fueled both the desire for nuclear weapons in Yugoslavia and their eventual renunciation, the most potent were security concerns. This notion provides an additional argument in support of the neorealist theory, in which state security ranks on the top list of motives in the decision of a state to build the atomic bomb, although the complete explanation for both decisions is not that straightforward. Without underestimating all the effort, sacrifices and commitment built into the development of the Yugoslav nuclear program, this study reveals that the initial low starting point was not an impossible puzzle to solve. Reading this conclusion in the opposite direction, the real discovery is that it was exactly this commitment, based on the insatiable thirst for independence, the ‘logic of independence’ as defined in this study, which that kept the project rapidly evolving. This is wider category than the state security concerns, and represents an important characteristic of the Yugoslav state-system, having a dual quality of adding a fresh perspective in the existing debates and emphasizing the importance of historical analysis in non-proliferation studies. Related and equally important is the realization that a small and underdeveloped nation armed with necessary determination can bend the rules powers, exploit all the loopholes and even create new ones, take advantage of global conflicts and play one superpower against the other to its own benefit. This notion brings a lot of agency back to lesser powers or small nations, which is particularly important considering that the Yugoslav experience played out within the Cold War context, when all ‘Big Powers’ were practicing much more caution in dealing with small nations than in periods of relative calm. |
| Supervisor | Siefert, Marsha |
| Department | History PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/miljkovic_marko.pdf |
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