Ancient Hatreds Or Elite Manipulation? MEMORY and POLITICS in the FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Author(S): STEVEN MAJSTOROVIC Reviewed Work(S): Source: World Affairs, Vol
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World Affairs Institute Ancient Hatreds or Elite Manipulation? MEMORY AND POLITICS IN THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Author(s): STEVEN MAJSTOROVIC Reviewed work(s): Source: World Affairs, Vol. 159, No. 4 (SPRING 1997), pp. 170-182 Published by: World Affairs Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20672499 . Accessed: 09/11/2011 10:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. World Affairs Institute and Heldref Publications are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to World Affairs. http://www.jstor.org 170 World Affairs Ancient Hatreds or Elite Manipulation? MEMORY AND POLITICS INTHE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA an Steven Majstorovic is assis By STEVENMAJSTOROVIC By threatening to reimpose sanctions against tant professor of science political Serbia, American envoy Richard Holbrooke at Duquesne University, Pitts the a when he coerced Serbia's burgh, Pennsylvania. optimism generated by Dayton forged compromise Any peace accords in late 1995 was substan President. Slobodan Milosevic into obtaining tially eroded by events during the spring and Karadizic's resignation and retreat from public summer of 1996. These events marked a pro life. But Karadzic is yet to be arrested, and his tracted and tragic endgame in the former political influence behind the scenes is still sub Yugoslavia. The flight from Sarajevo by Bos stantial.6Moreover, most of the indicted war nian Serbs inFebruary and March 1996 was the criminals roam free throughout Bosnia, Cro first indication of things to come. During the atia, and rumpYugoslavia. summer, refugees who tried to return to their The complexity of the Yugoslav conflict former homes were harassed and attacked by illustrates that the genesis of the war and the paramilitary gangs. The early focus was on the issues of ethnonational7 identity that fed the behavior of the Bosnian Serbs, but now it is flames of conflict are far from being understood apparent that a policy of ethnic apartheid is in any way that reflects some set of shared per being pursued by all sides in Bosnia.' spectives among scholars and pundits. For It was hoped that elections planned for Sep example, the exodus from Sarajevo by the Serbs tember 1996 would thwart and erode the anti in February and March 1996 seems to defy democratic policies of ethnic separatists. But an logic and rationality. One analytic perspective early attempt at elections as a vehicle for con contends that the war is a product of "ancient flict resolution in the divided city of Mostar hatreds" rooted in primordial identity and con produced an impasse in which Croats from the sequently any national group that falls under western part of Mostar refused to recognize thepolitical control of another is inmortal dan election results thatgave a slightmajority to the ger. The experience of some Serbs who left Muslims from the eastern part of the city.2 Sarajevo certainly reinforces this contention, as When the European Union (EU) threatened to they ran a gauntlet of hostile Bosnian Muslims, leave Mostar, calling it the "biggest crisis"3 supposedly bent on revenge.8 An opposing per since theDayton peace accords, U.S. President spective views the war as the product of elite Bill Clinton personally pressured Croatian manipulation and fear-mongering by ethnic President Franjo Tudjman, and the situation entrepreneurs who fanned the flames of hatred was at least temporarily resolved.4 However, for their own purposes and who manipulated Mostar's former Serb residents, who made up ethnonational identity issues that are them 20 percent of the prewar population, were com selves just a product of an "invented tradition."9 pletely leftout of the election process inMostar Analysts who adhere to the second perspective and repatriation is extremely unlikely.5 suggested that Serbs should take hold of their The Bosnian election problems were com senses, accept the guarantees of the Bosnian pounded when Bosnian President Alija Izetbe Croat Federation, ignore their leader's warn govic threatened to boycott the elections unless ings, and stay in Sarajevo. Despite assurances, indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic however, the Serbs who stayed in Sarajevo have resigned his office as president of the Bosnian been continually threatened.10 Bosnian Prime Serb Republic and was extradited to theHague Minister Hasan Muratovic promised that the war crimes tribunal for the formerYugoslavia. violence against Serbs in Sarajevo would be Vol. 159No. 4 SPRING 1997 171 an stopped. But unfortunately,most of the Serbs in its nature unending process that is both root Sarajevo now want to leave, including many ed in antiquity and nurtured by modernity. who were loyal to theBosnian government dur The debate between the primordialist notion ing thewar.11 of ethnonational identity and the argument that Clearly, theYugoslav conflict is an almost this identity is socially constructed is a need ideal laboratory for addressing some of the cen lessly constructed dichotomy in itself.Analyses tral questions that scholars of nationalism and that highlight a type of primordial fundamen ethnicity pose. Those who espouse a primor talism14 in the work of Geertz15 and Shils16 dialist conception of national identity have often simplify the primordialist perspective as ample evidence to support theirposition, while one that sees ethnic identity as eternal and the constructionists also have abundant data inflexible, an ontological given.17 Although that support their contention that national iden there are primordial perspectives thatare socio tity is essentially an artificial and modern phe biological in orientation and do articulate eth nomenon that is often at themercy of ambitious nic identity as an ontological given,18 a com leaders who manipulate and instrumentalize mon sense approach to the debate might be ethnonational identity. useful. This article argues thatprevailing analyses of A first step in resolving the dichotomy ethnic conflict in the formerYugoslavia that between ethnonational identity as a given and focus either on a notion of ancient, primordial identity as constructed or manufactured is to hatreds rooted in centuries-old identities, or on substitute the term "premodern" for "primor the premise thatethnic identity in theBalkans is dial" and "modern" for "constructed." Anthony a modern social construction that has been Smith's work is concerned with establishing instrumentalized by political elites,12miss the that ethnic groups and nations existed long essential nature of the ongoing struggle.Histor before the formation of nation-states and the con ical memory constrains the options that leaders ideology of modern nationalism.19 This exercise in conflict creation and in peacemak tention is extremely important for understand ing. Ethnic identity in the formerYugoslavia, ing the competing claims of Serbs, Croats, and however, has also been and will continue be Bosnian Muslims. All of these ethnonational somewhat flexible and politically adaptive but groups refer to a "Golden Age" when their only within a framework thatdoes not threaten nation was the epitome of cultural achievement. the constraints imposed by myth and memory. Moreover, the maximum boundaries claimed The constraints on masses and elites imposed today by these groups are the ones thatwere by historical experience are particularly applic temporarily achieved during the zenith of their able for the Serbs, somewhat less so for the respective Golden Ages.20 Smith convincingly Croats, and even less so for the Bosnian Mus argues that modern nations do have their lims. The Balkan conflict has both premodern, antecedents in antiquity. He does not deny that are primordial characteristics and modern, con today nations modern. But he does insist structed/instrumentalized elements in which thatmany of the fundamental characteristics of ancient antagonisms (sometimes hatreds) and the modern nation existed long before the modern politics have both contributed apprecia advent of nationalism: to the and an on bly tragedy, overemphasis We find in premodern eras, even in the ancient either perspective misrepresents the nature of world, striking parallels to the modern idea of in the ethnic conflict and politics in the former national identity and character, way Greeks and Romans looked on who did Yugoslavia. people not share theircultures or come fromtheir city ISSUES OF ETHNONATIONAL states; in theway inwhich ancientEgyptians looked Nubians and and in IDENTITY upon Asiatics; Mesopotamian and Biblical distinctionsdrawn Both theprimordialist and constructivist per between different peoples. In the ancient world, we find movements that appear to spectives inform the debate over whether the resemble modern nationalism in several essence of a nation is historically rooted or is a respects,notably a desire to liberate territories to be modern, artificial creation. What needs conquered by aliens, or to resist foreign considered is that ethnonational identity is con encroachments. .. Are we then really justified tinually reformulated in an iterative process in in regardingnations and nationalism