„Gewaltschock Jugoslawien“ – Perzeptionen und Projektionen in Deutschland und Frankreich
The „Shock of Violence“ Yugoslavia – Perceptions and

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. The European public perceived the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a “shock of violence” which provoked public and intellectual debates that went far beyond the question of how the conflicts could be ended. Three fields of these debates are discussed in the following article: First, the wars contributed to a revision of the conventional self-perception of “the West” and finally eroded what Hans Joas has called the “dream of a peaceful modernity”. Second, the wars changed our perceptions of violence and made us more sensitive to forms of violence that had been neglected or marginalized, such as sexual violence and “ethnic cleansing”. This greater sensitivity also contributed to an increasing concern for the significance of morality in political and, in particular, military action. Third, the wars produced intellectual reactions, which, particularly in Germany and France, reflected partly the different roles intellectuals have played in those societies.

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