“You Labeled Me, I’ll Label You”

This chapter examines how Serbian officials perceived relations with Croatia and how they assessed the level of threat coming from Zagreb. It also classifies different stigma-management actions pursued by Serbia towards Croatia between 2001 and 2020 and analyzes the most important results of their application and the impact they had on the desired destigmatization of Serbia. Combining the findings of the analysis of the relative importance of this stage with the analysis conducted of the perception of threat coming in relations with Croatia, this chapter tests whether the pursued strategies align with the destigmatization dilemma model. The chapter seeks to understand why Serbia’s response in some cases was compromising or apologetic, while in others it was negational and accusing.