ABSTRACT: This paper aims to explore the intensive international cooperation between the Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia (SPJ) and the Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV) organization between 1955 and 1988. The partnership established between Yugoslavia and one of the world’s most prominent international children’s organizations proved mutually significant, as Yugoslavia participated in at least twenty-five camps across twelve countries between 1962 and 1988. These camps enabled children from all regions of Yugoslavia to come into contact and form friendships with peers from fifty-six countries around the world. This study will analyze the historical development of the relationship between CISV and Yugoslav children's organizations responsible for the social organization and participation of children, the significance of CISV, and the role of Yugoslav educational policy in implementing peace-oriented initiatives, as well as the participation of Yugoslav delegations in CISV camps. The research is primarily based on the reports of the leaders of Yugoslav pioneer delegations who took part in CISV camps.

KEYWORDS: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia, The Union of Organizations for the Education and Care of Children of Yugoslavia, The Children's International Summer Villages Camp, Doris Twitchell Allen, Peace, Internationalism, International Cooperation

SUMMARY: Thanks to its membership in UNESCO, Yugoslavia established contacts with various international organizations dealing with issues of child upbringing and education. In this way, links were also created with the organization Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV), whose primary focus was the building of friendship among children as a foundation for global peace. The idea of promoting global peace through cooperation with the United Nations and its agencies was not unfamiliar to the Yugoslav leadership. The integration of Yugoslavia into the international community through the UN represented one of the main foreign policy orientations of the Yugoslav state throughout the entire socialist period. Cooperation between the Union of Organizations for the Education and Care of Children of Yugoslavia, that is, the Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia, and CISV lasted from 1955 to 1988. Between 1962 and 1988, Yugoslav pioneers participated in at least twenty-five CISV camps in twelve countries across four continents, where they encountered boys and girls from as many as fifty-six national delegations. Yugoslavia was the first communist country in which a CISV camp was organized, in 1972, in Velenje (Socialist Republic of Slovenia). The influence of CISV was significant for the development of certain forms of organization, upbringing, and education of children in Yugoslavia, above all through the establishment of the first international children’s camp known as the International Children’s Friendship Meeting. Between 1976 and 1988, more than 2,000 children from at least thirty-five countries around the world took part in this camp. Although the number of Yugoslav children who participated in CISV camps was relatively small, the presence of Yugoslav delegations was of exceptional importance for children as a social group. Through selected boys and girls, the Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia actively participated in shaping a spatial representation of an alternative vision of the world.