Milovanović graduated from Paris Law School in 1884 and received a doctorate from the same university in 1888, with the thesis Les Traités de garantie au XIXe siècle.

His genuine idea was to achieve a rapprochement between the Balkan nations followed hopefully by an alliance (between Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria), that would be linked to the Entente powers and stand firmly against the German policy of Drang nach Osten pursued by Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Milovanović served as Minister of Justice in the Radical cabinet of Đorđe Simić (17 December 1896 to 11 October 1897, old style),[1] and worked actively in preparing the Compromise (Ugodba) with the Bulgarians (1897) concerning bilateral relations of the two nations.

[3] Milovanović returned to Serbia after the King pardoned the exiled Radicals in 1900, and then served shortly as envoy to Bucharest[3] and eventually became Finance Minister in the governments of Aleksa Jovanović (1900–1901) and Mihailo Vujić (1901–1902).

Milovanović was instrumental to drafting the new 1901 constitution promulgated in April (Aprilski Ustav) that introduced the Upper chamber of the Serbian National Assembly, as well as laws concerning the economy.

In early 1903 Milovanović was appointed as Serbian envoy to Rome where he engaged in wide diplomatic activity in order to increase the role of Italy in the reform efforts of the Great Powers in Ottoman-held Old Serbia and Macedonia.

[3][4] The provisions of the Serbo-Bulgarian alliance called for a joint action against any power (i.e. Austria-Hungary) that might try to “annex, occupy, or event temporarily to invade with its arms” the Ottoman-held Balkan provinces.