slovenia recently imposed an arms embargo on israel, the first eu state to do so. at the same time, discussion around a nato withdrawal referendum is picking up again—something that was never properly voted on in 2003, when slovenia joined under media pressure and low turnout.
no illusions about the liberal led government, which functions entirely within the eu/nato imperial framework. but the fact that even minor deviations—an embargo, a diplomatic meeting, a public referendum proposal—triggered coordinated backlash says a lot. the margin for autonomy within the core-periphery structure is that thin.
none of this means slovenia is pursuing an anti-imperialist course, but it does show where the ideological tripwires are. even small states making symbolic moves can rupture the narrative if conditions are unstable enough.
does the non-aligned legacy have any real potential today, or is this just the afterimage of yugoslavia being used as a scarecrow for nato’s internal discipline? is slovenia a fringe case or an early sign of wider fragmentation? how does slovenia compare to the baltics?