Balkan Ethnoconfessional Nationalism: Analysis and Management
Balkan Ethnoconfessional Nationalism: Analysis and Management

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. If peace and stability in southeastern Europe are still at risk even after massive international engagement, then this suggests that both our understanding of the problems facing southeastern Europe and the policies used to deal with those problems have been deficient. This article outlines the academic and the policymaking conventional wisdom on what has been driving disintegration and violence in southeastern Europe over the past two decades, and then provides an alternative understanding for these processes. It focuses on Balkan ethnoconfessional nationalism as a collective, non-rational, and chronic phenomenon, arguing that such a perspective harbors numerous implications for the choice of policies. A serious effort to deal with Balkan ethnoconfessional nationalism must focus on transforming the political culture of southeastern Europe as a whole, which can, ultimately, be only the task of the peoples of southeastern Europe themselves.

• Details
• Contents