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For the last 18 years the dispute was much abused politically. Mind you, there were legitimate attempts at solving it (most notably the Drnovšek-Račan agreement), but as time passed and frustration mounted, the situation came to a point where it first had to be defused in order to be solved. The fuse was slowly burning by way of countless politicians from both sides of the border using the dispute to score cheap political points. While one could easily make a similar case for Croatia, the fact of the matter is that the list of "true defenders of holy Slovenian soil" is long and distinguished. As a result, those who fancied themselves protectors of the southern border and all things Slovene are now in serious trouble as ending the dispute would deprive them of their most basic political platform and - consequentially - of their primary political identity. The party fitting this description most is the Slovene People's Party (SLS) led by Radovan Žerjav.

In the last couple of years SLS went from bad to worse, in terms of its political power. As a result, the party increasingly relied on the border dispute as the main factor in its political identity. It advocated maximalist solutions at Croatia's expense, and this approach was successful enough to ensure SLS's continued survival. Solving the border issue would probably sentence it to political oblivion, where for reasons of dominance on the political right wing, Janez Janša has been trying to send it for years.

Janez Janša and his SDS party, on the other hand, seem to have been caught off guard by the speed at which Pahor and Kosor struck the deal. Even more. when SLS' push started turning into a shove when they openly supported the referendum bid, SDS remained curiously quiet. This seems to suggest that they were caught between a rock and a hard place. Supporting the referendum would start a barrage of justified accusations from PM Pahor's ruling coalition of putting partisan politics above national interest, whereas not supporting the referendum would draw equally justified flak from their opposition allies for not putting their money where their mouth is. A rather uncomfortable position for Janša, who only a year ago was the prime minister of this country, held the EU presidency and fancies himself a statesman deluxe. So SDS is simply trying to sit this one out, which speaks volumes, considering that when the text of the agreement finally became public, the word "high treason" was applied liberally.

We are witnessing nothing short of an identity crisis on the right-wing of the Slovenian political spectrum.

On the other hand, as things stand now, the coalition and PM Borut Pahor are enjoying a rare moment of partnership bliss in what was an altogether rather turbulent first year during which the coalition often seemed to have degraded into a barely-tolerated cohabitation.

It turns out that the agreement, which, by the way has yet to be ratified by Slovenia, - but which may possibly be ratified after a consultative non-binding referendum is called by the government - stipulates that countries can reach an agreement at any time until the arbitrage court rules on the issue. It seems that neither Ljubljana nor Zagreb is wasting time. At the time of writing this article, the justice ministers of both countries were to discuss mediation on the border dispute, and hopeful noises were made by Minister Aleš Zalar (on Twitter, of all places!) that the dispute could actually be settled before the arbitrage court commences its work. After which, Croatia could sign its EU accession treaty, presumably some time in 2011.

And thus, we come full circle to our opening sentence. In 2009, annus horribilis for many a country in the world is drawing to a close, governments in Slovenia and Croatia have little to show for themselves. However, if they could (somehow, possibly) solve this dispute, their stock would soar. This is especially true now, when good news is as rare as survivors of Chuck Norris' roundhouse kick (to quote a popular internet fad). At any rate, the arbitrage agreement not only has the potential to actually start solving the dispute, but can also radically alter the Slovenian (and, one would suspect) Croatian political landscape. No wonder so many are trying to kill it with everything they've got.