Biography

Aleksandar Pavkovic was born in Belgrade, where he completed classical gymnasium and enrolled in the philosophy course at the University of Belgrade. He earned his BA and MA in philosophy at Yale University in the USA and a B.Phil at the University of Oxford. With a dissertation on the theories of perception of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, he received his doctorate from the University of Belgrade in 1984, where he had been, from 1976, first assistant lecturer and then a lecturer in epistemology and logic. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in philosophy at the University of Melbourne, from 1987 he became as a lecturer in Serbian Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. He later taught European Studies, and subsequently the history of political theories as well as theories of international relations in the Department of Politics at the same university. He has been retired since 2021.

In addition to his work on Yugoslavia before and after its dissolution, he has published on the Serbian national idea, on Slobodan Jovanović, Mihailo Marković, and Vlada Mijanović. He has also written on the national anthems of the states that emerged from federal Yugoslavia, as well as on declarations of independence in cases of unilateral secession.

Selected Bibliography

Yugoslavia: Before and After

  • The Disintegration of Yugoslavia: Avoidable or Inevitable? Edited by Aleksandar Pavković, special issue of The Nationalities Papers, No. 3, Vol. 25. New York, 1997.
  • The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia: Nationalism and War in the Balkans, London: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Second revised edition, 264 pp.
  • ‘Yugoslavs and Europeans: A Tale of Two Supranational Identities’ in European National Identities: Elements, Transitions, Conflict, edited by Roland Vogt, Wayne Cristaudo, Andreas Leutzsch. Piscataway, NJ, Transaction Publishers, 2014.
  • ‘Why did Yugoslavia disintegrate? Is there a conclusive answer?’ Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 6 (3), 2004: 299-307.
  • ‘Yugoslavism’s Last Stand: a Utopia of Serb Intellectuals’ in Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea 1918-1992, edited by Dejan Djokic, London: Hurst, 2003, pp. 252-68.
  • ‘Multiculturalism as a prelude to state fragmentation: the case of Yugoslavia’, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 3 (2), 2001: 131-143.
  • ‘Resurrection: The Tale of Two Anthems Sung by the Serbs,’ Christopher Kelen and A. Pavković, Nations and Nationalism 16:3, 2010, 442–461.
  • ‘Secession as an Instrument of National Liberation: The Balkans over the Last Two Centuries.’ In Essays on Secession, Belgrade: Arhipelag and the Institute for European Studies, 2025, pp. 27-57.

Secession

  • ‘Nations, corrective justice and state creation: how normative are normative remedial theories of secession?’ Pavlović, J., Pavković, A. & Đurković. In: Nations and Nationalism. 15 p., 29 Dec 2024.
  • The Routledge Handbook of Self-Determination and Secession. Edited by Ryan Griffiths, Aleksandar Pavković and Peter Radan. London: Routledge, 2023.
  • Separatism and Secessionism in Europe and Asia: To Have a State of One’s Own. Edited by Aleksandar Pavković and Jean-Pierre Cabestan, London: Routledge, 2013 (Reissued, Routledge 2016).
  • The Ashgate Research Companion to Secession. Edited by Aleksandar Pavković and Peter Radan. Farnham, Ashgate, 2011. (Reissued, Routledge 2016).
  • Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession. Aleksandar Pavković with Peter Radan. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. (Reissued, Routledge 2016) Serbian translation: Stvaranje novih država. Teorija i praksa otcepljenja [Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession]. Belgrade: Službeni glasnik, 2008.

Philosophy

  • Contemporary Yugoslav Philosophy: The Analytic Approach, edited by Aleksandar Pavković, Dordrecht and New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988.
  • Razlozi za sumnju [Reasons for Doubt]. Aleksandar Pavković, Belgrade: Istraživačko-izdavački centar SSO, 1988.
  • Svest i saznanje: ogledi iz savremene analitičke filosofije [Consciousness and Knowledge: Essays in Contemporary Analytic Philosophy]. Selected and edited by Aleksandar Pavković. Belgrade: Nolit, 1980.