The Croatian-Serbian Missile Race
By Andrew KORYBKO (USA)
(This posting is a select chapter from Andrew Korybko’s second book that will focus on the geopolitical application of Hybrid Wars.) 
Historical Foundation
The rivalry between Croatia and Serbia is centuries-long, stretching
to before either of them were modern-day nation states and back to the
time when they were still under the occupation of Austria-Hungary and
the Ottoman Empire, respectively. It’s been argued that both people are
of the same ethnic origin, with their only substantial differences being
in dialect and adherence to a particular Christian branched
(Catholicism for Croats, Orthodoxy for Serbs). Extended research has
already been published on the fraternal similarities between these two
people and the reasons for their contemporary perception of
“separateness” as regards the other, so the present study will refrain
from repeating what has already been established long before it and
begin the historical discourse from the more relevant period of World
War II.
Leading up to the intercommunal hostilities that formally broke out
after the Nazi invasion (although incidents of violence were indeed
present right before then), the Croats had been agitating for an
autonomous ethno-centric sub-state within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and
they finally received their wish with the August 1939 Cvetkovic-Macek Agreement that established the Croatian Banovina. The Ustase, a hyper-fascist
Croatian organization led by Ante Pavelic, had been pushing for this
for quite some time, seeing it as a stepping stone to outright
independence and the fulfillment of their nationalist ambitions to forge
Greater Croatia. Observed from abroad, the Croatian fascists obviously
seemed like ideal and natural partners for the Nazis to cooperate with
before and after their forthcoming invasion of Yugoslavia, and it’s no
surprise that Hitler would later work hand-in-glove with Pavelic in
exterminating the Serbs. Their pre-war collaboration was so deep that
the “Independent State of Croatia”, the Nazi-controlled puppet project
during World War II (the most radical manifestation of Greater Croatia),
would be declared right after Hitler’s invasion and over a week prior
to the formal capitulation of the Yugoslav government, suggesting that
its supporters were eagerly awaiting the offensive and understood that
it was only with Nazi support that their nationalist nightmare could
become a reality.
