Programme of the International Conference: Serbian (Yugoslav) – British Relations from the 19th to the 21st Centuries, Belgrade, January 26-27, 2018
The book British-Serbian Relations from the 18th to the 21st Centuries
The book British-Serbian Relations from the 18th to the 21st Centuries is the most comprehensive thematic collection of papers covering this field and is the result of two international conferences held in London and Belgrade. The book has been edited by S. G. Markovich and it features contributions by scholars from leading universities and institutions in the United Kingdom, Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary (London School of Economics, University College London, University of Belgrade, Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy etc.), as well as contributions by current and previous diplomats of Great Britain and Serbia. The authors are: Cedomir Antic, Sasa Knezevic, David Norris, Bojan Aleksov, Zorica Becanovic Nikolic, Slobodan G. Markovich, Dragan Bakic, Dusan Babac, Eric Beckett Weaver, Radmila Radic, Zoran Milutinovic, Milan Ristovic, Vojislav Pavlovic, Ranko Bugarski, Nenad Sebek, Vukasin Pavlovic, Boris Hlebec, Vesna Goldsworthy, Katarina Rasulic, Lord Randall of Uxbridge, Amb. Denis Keefe, Amb. Aleksandra Joksimovic, David Gowan, Amb. Branimir Filipovic, Christopher Coker, Spyros Economides, and James Ker-Lindsay.
The book spans the period from the visit of Dositey Obradovich to London in 1784/85 to 2018. Political, diplomatic and cultural relations of the two nations during the course of more than 230 years have been covered. The first two sections include the main episodes in the history of mutual political and cultural relations such as the Eastern Crisis, the roles of William Gladstone and Miss Irby, extraordinary relations during the Great War, relations of the Church of England and the Serbian Orthodox Church, studies of Shakespeare among Serbs, connection of British women and Serbia, the role of Serbian anglophiles, relations of the United Kingdom with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Communist Yugoslavia, and the relations of the dynasties of Windsor and Karageorgevich. The third section deals with the role of some institutions that have acted as intermediaries between the two cultures, such as the English Department at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, the Yugoslav and Serbian sections of the BBC, and the English Speaking Union. There are also contributions on educational co-operation under international sanctions, a review of English-Serbian and Serbian-English dictionaries, and an essay on what it is like to be an Anglo-Serbian writer. The last section comprises an analysis of diplomatic and political relations in the 21st century covering various aspects of a developed mutual co-operation, but also a series of sensitive issues such as the Kosovo Question, the impact of UN interventionism, and a wider question of Serbia’s relations with the West.