Back into the fold

Like many small countries, croatia faces the dual challenge of creating a sustainable economy in a globalized world and of providing its citizens with a secure future. this challenge is considerable and is not made easier by the fact that croatia declared independence only in 1991, and secured it only after a violent war ending in 1995. the country is now a candidate for membership of the European union (Eu), and has received a North atlantic treaty Organization (NatO) membership invitation, yet the economic and social repercussions of the war and the former communist rule of the country are still felt. Of course, the situation in croatia is comparable with those in other former communist countries in Eastern Europe: the challenge is how to catch up with the economically and scientifically advanced nations in Western Europe. given its particular situation, the croatian government has decided that the most efficient strategy to create and ensure a sustainable long-term future for croatia is to invest in education and to strengthen the research base of the country. Here, i describe the steps that we have already taken along this road, and our future strategy for creating a knowledge-based economy in croatia. the republic of croatia is a country in south-eastern Europe with a population of ~4.4 million (central Bureau of Statistics of the republic of croatia, 2007). the Kingdom of croatia was founded in 925 aD when the first king, tomislav (910–928) of the trpimirović dynasty, was crowned. in the year 1102, the Kingdom of croatia formed a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, and croatia spent the next 800 years in various alliances with other powers in the region. at the end of the Second World War, croatia became a constitutive federal republic of the Socialist Federal republic of yugoslavia. it finally declared independence on 25 June 1991, but was forced to fight a 4-year war caused by aggression against croatia, which finally ended with a croatian victory that liberated the occupied territory and reunified the country. By the end of January 1992, most countries had recognized croatia as an independent state, and the last Serb-held enclave in Eastern Slavonia was returned to croatia in 1998 under the supervision of the united Nations.