Introduction Croatia after Tuđman: Encounters with the Consequences of Conflict and Authoritarianism

On 10 January 2010 Ivo Josipovic, a Zagreb University law professor, was elected Croatia's third post-communism president. Despite Croatia's presidency being a largely symbolic office, Jospovic's election marked a transformative moment for the post-conflict and post-authoritarian state. Indeed, as Croatia moves closer to the conclusion of its European Union accession negotiations, the 2010s may very well be remembered as the decade in which Croatia moved beyond the post-war transition paradigm. In general, the personalities who dominated Croatian politics during the 1990s and early 2000s have been replaced with a new generation of a post-conflict elite. Even Croatia's outgoing president, Stjepan Mesic, whose outbursts in the twilight hours of his mandate poisoned Croatia's relationship with its neighbours to the east and brought back memories of conflict from the previous decade, could not help but remark upon Josipovic's relative political obscurity.