FOREIGN POLICY THOUGHT OF MILOVAN MILOVANOVIĆ: DOES IT REACH THE BAR OF FOREIGN POLICY THEORY?

Krstić Milan (Milan Krstić, MA, Fakultet političkih nauka), milan.krstic@fpn.bg.ac.rs.

The main research question posed in this article is could foreign policy considerations of Milovan Milovanović (Serbian politician, diplomat and a fruitful author from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century) be regarded as a theory of foreign policy? Our thesis is that these considerations are a pre-theory of foreign policy. After a description of the key Milovanović’s hypotheses about the foreign policy behavior of states in international relations, we will test could they be regarded as a comprehensive theory using two tools: 1) the minimal test; 2) the optimal test. Finally, we would try to locate Milovanović’s pre-theory inside broader realpolitik thought, as well as to analyze its relevance for contemporary foreign policy theoretical approaches.

Keywords: Milovan Milovanović, foreign policy, theory, realpolitik, neoclassical realism