Abstract
This article examines the evolution of Slovenia’s geopolitical imagination regarding the post-Yugoslav space from the 1980s to the present through the lens of critical geopolitics. It traces how dominant Slovenian geopolitical representations of this area have evolved over time and argues that these shifts were primarily shaped by transformation in Slovenian political and economic goals. The article examines which geopolitical representations prevailed in different periods, how they were constructed, and why they underwent transformation. The analysis identifies four historical-geopolitical phases: the late socialist period, characterized by discursive differentiation from other Yugoslav republics; the post-independence period, during which the former Yugoslavia was largely tabooed as part of Slovenia’s European identity construction; the post-EU-accession phase, marked by a patronizing rediscovery of the Western Balkans; and a more recent phase in which narratives of Slovenian discursively articulated superiority have been increasingly challenged, giving rise to a more complex and interdependent geopolitical imagination.
Keywords: critical geopolitics, geopolitical imagination, Slovenia, former Yugoslavia, Western Balkans