1• Lo1;1ghb_orough .Umverslty Pilkington Library Author/Filing Title ......~X.~~ ....................... .. ············ ............ ········· .................................. Vol. No. ............ Class Mark ..... ~ ................ Please note that fines are charged on ALL overdue items. Conspiracy theory in Serbian culture at the time of the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia by Jovan T. Byford © A doctoral thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University 19 March, 2002 r--~·------, Class ..,.r.,..· ...-oo~ c----·---Ace .......... No. Abstract The thesis examines Serbian conspiracy culture at the time of the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. During the war, conspiratorial themes became a regular occurrence in Serbian mainstream media, as well as in pronouncements by the Serbian political establishment. For the most part, conspiratorial explanations focused on the machinations of transnational elite organisations such as the Bilderberg group or, more generally, on the conspiracy of 'the West'. However, conspiratorial accounts of the war occasionally invoked themes which were previously deemed to be beyond the boundaries of acceptable opinion, such as the allusion to a Jewish conspiracy or to the esoteric and occult aspects of the alleged plot. The thesis outlines the history of conspiracy theories in Serbia and critically reviews psychological approaches to understanding the nature of conspiracy theories. It suggests that the study of conspiratorial discourse requires the exploration of the rhetorical and argumentative structure of specific conspiratorial explanations, while paying special attention to the historical and ideological context within which these explanations are situated. The thesis is largely based upon the examination of the coverage of the war in the Serbian press. Recorded conversations with two well known Serbian conspiracy theorists are also analysed. The study suggest that conspiratorial interpretations of the war drew upon a longstanding conspiracy tradition of explanation which has a strong antisemitic legacy and is rooted in right-wing Christian ideology. Analytic chapters explore the discursive and ideological dynamics by which the antisemitic and mystical aspects of the conspiracy tradition emerged briefly in Serbian mainstream media and political discourse. The thesis concludes by examining the status of conspiracy theories in Serbia in the aftennath of the political changes in October 2000. Key Words: conspiracy theory, Serbia, Yugoslavia, antisemitism, Serbian Orthodox Church, Nikolaj Velimirovic, Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................ viii Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Conspiracy theory as an ideological tradition: history and taxonomy 5 2.1 Historical overview.......................................................................... 9 2.2 Principal features of conspiratorial explanatory style.................................. 18 2.3 Classification of conspiracy theories...................................................... 25 2.4 Ideological Tradition Vs Post-modern Culture: Alternative interpretations of conspiracy theory........................................ 28 2.5 Conclusion .............................................·........................................ 35 Chapter 3 Serbian populist right-wing politics: the roots of conspiracy culture 37 3.1 Early history of Serbian conspiracy culture and the emergence of conspiratorial antisemitism........ .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. ... .. .. 38 3.2 Conspiracy theory as a political ideology and religious doctrine: Dimitrije Ljotic, Nikolaj Velimirovic and 1930s Serbian populism.................. 40 3.3 Serbs vs. 'the rotten West': The roots of anti-Western political discourse in Serbia................................... 47 3.4 Post World War II developments and the marginalisation of conspiracy theory............................................................................................ 50 3.5 The fall of communism and the revival of Serbian nationalism......................... 51 Chapter 4 Social psychology and the study of extraordinary explanations: From attributional bias to ideology....................................................... 58 4.1 Social psychology and conspiracy theory: the limits of explanation.................... 59 4.2 Cognitive factors in conspiracy theory...................................................... 62 4.3 Motivational factors in conspiracy theory................................................... 65 4.4 Psychology of rumour and conspiracy theory............................................... 70 4.5 Paranormal beliefs and conspiracy theories................................................. 74 4.6 Social psychology as history: social constructionism and the study of collective beliefs................................. 80 4. 7 Social psychology and the study of ideology............................................... 83 4.8 The idea of method and the practice of'traditional scholarship'......................... 86 Chapter S Data and materials............................................................................. 91 Chapter 6 Protoconspiracy theory and the proliferation of suspicion in the Serbian media and political discourse............................................... 100 6.1 Protoconspiratorial argument and Milosevic's political rhetoric in the early 1990s....................... .. .. 101 6.2 Protoconspiracy theory vs. the conspiracy tradition: the important differences....................................................................... 105 6.3 Protoconspiracy vs. the conspiracy tradition: the similarities............................. 116 6.4 Protoconspiracy theory, the breakdown of alternative explanations and the broadening of the boundaries of acceptable opinion.............................. 128 Chapter 7 The emergence of antisemitic conspiracy themes In the mainstream Serbian press.............................................................................................. 134 7.1 Politika and the Bilderberg Conspiracy...................................................... 136 7.2 Links between the world elite conspiracy theory and the classical conspiratorial tradition..................................................... 140 7.3 World elite organisations: between reality and the conspiratorial imagination........................................ 142 7.4 World elite conspiracy theory and the historical continuity of conspiracy.............. 146 7.5 Emergence ofantisemitic tradition inPolitika.............................................. 151 7.6 Antisemitism and the Serbian Orthodox Church............................................ 156 7.7 Psychological or ideological problematic: reactions to the emergence ofantisemitism inPolitika.................................... 157 Chapter 8 Conspiracy theory and paranormal explanation....................................... 161 8.1 Who has the secret weapon?· 'pipe dream' rumours in time ofwar.................... 163 8.2 Prelude to the revelations about Group 69: Vladimir Zhirinovsky and 'elipton'.. 165 8.3 'Yugoslav army's best kept secret' is revealed to the public.............................. 167 8.4 The structure and membership of Group 69....................... .......................... 169 8.5 Theoretical framework of Group 69: science, religion and conspiracy theory...................................................... 173 8.6 Pseudoscientific dimension of international conspiracy.................................. 174 8. 7 Mystical/Religious element of the activities of Group 69.................... .. 180 8.8 Links with the conspiratorial cultural tradition............................................. 185 8.9 What is acceptable and what is not?- conspiracy theory and paranormal discourse in Yugoslav military publications.................................. 187 Chapter 9 'Neocortical Warfare': conspiratorial re-presentation of a biological metaphor............................. 198 9.1 Hindu mysticism and modem warfare in Radisic's recent work........................ 199 9.2 The change in emphasis in the post-1995 writing of Svetozar Radisic .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 202 9.3 From esoteric to information war............................................................ 205 9.4 Creating a reasonable version of conspiracy theory: a process of representation.................................................................... 207 9.5 'Neocortical warfare' in US military literature............................................. 208 9. 6 First phase of conspiratorial re-presentation: transforming a personal view into a 'doctrinal rule'.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 213 9. 7 Second phase of re-presentation: objectification of the 'neocortex' in the writing of Svetozar RadiSic........ ...... ... 215 9.8 Rhetorical implications ofre-presentation......................................... ...... 218 9.9 Conspiracy theory beyond left and right: Bishop Velimirovic in Vojno Delo....................................................... .... 221 Chapter 10 Conspiracy culture in post-Milosevic Serbia: the retnrn to the margins.......... 225 10.1 Conspiracy theory and the transition of power in October 2000..... .................... 227 10.2 The marginalisation of conspiratorial discourse in post-Milosevic