Serbia Daily, May 31, 2019 7 Climate Change, Democracy, and Enclaves in the Balkans By transitioning from a flawed democracy or a hybrid regime to a full-fledged democracy, it is hoped that Bosnia, Kosovo, and the other Balkan countries will indulge in more effective climate action lthough there are climate change By Rory J. Conces not dismantle their parallel govern- deniers (and skeptics) of all sorts, University of Nebraska, Omaha ments and end the duplication of serv- the preponderance of evidence ices such as public transportation, A (Special to Serbia Daily) supports the consensus of climate sci- policing and garbage collection and if entists that climate change is occurring adjustment to these effects are key fea- leaders in North Mitrovica and Prishtina and that man is likely to be behind tures of a comprehensive strategy to cannot agree on the structuring and much of it. combat anthropocentric climate financing of education, medical care, The effects, which are becoming change. and municipal services, how will these increasingly catastrophic, include rising Obviously, any strategy calling for such same leaders work together to tackle sea levels, melting glaciers, disruption efforts goes well beyond individuals the knotty problem of climate change? of various ecosystems, species extinc- choosing to moderate their own behav- It seems to me that their strong ethno- tion and reduction of biodiversity, and ior to one that requires governments nationalist sentiments will get the better more extreme weather occurrences making aggressive policy changes and of them, making the building of coali- world-wide of drought, flooding, torna- the International Community engaging tions very difficult. does, and abnormal temperatures. in immediate widespread collective “The optimists” may also remind us of There are also climate induced conflicts action and enforcing compliance of all the growing movement calling for a and immigration. agreements. human right to a healthy environment. Given the nature of this crisis, no coun- What should concern us today is the To be honest, this movement is a step in try is free from climate change and its extent to which countries in the Balkans the right direction. Who wouldn’t effects, and that includes countries in can be part of a comprehensive strate- approve such a legal move given that the Balkans. Perhaps the historic flood- gy. Is their participation even plausible? climate change, or more aptly put, ing that ravaged parts of Bosnia and There are those—“the optimists”—who environmental breakdown, is beginning Serbia in May of 2014, as well as the point to the fact that mitigation and to threaten the conditions that form the record heat wave and drought in the adaptation projects are becoming basis of human well-being and ulti- summer of 2017 could be harbingers of more common, even in places like mately survival? future devastation throughout the Bosnia and Kosovo. The donor commu- region. nity there, which includes the World Different Dimension Bank, USAID, and the UNDP, has funded Sense of Urgency projects on renewable energy, flood This infusion of human rights into the dis- management, watershed develop- cussion is significant, for an environ- No wonder there is a growing sense of ment, and disaster resilience, to name mentally-based human right adds a dif- urgency to climate action. The fact that only a few. ferent dimension not only to addressing we are citizens of the world and that we But do these projects reflect a compre- climate change but to supporting the share a planet in trouble has finally hensive strategy, one that includes a body of already established human begun to take root in our ethos. Most buy-in by stakeholders at the state, enti- rights as well. According to “the opti- encouragingly, scientists and policy- ty, and municipality levels, and that mists,” this will lead to further collective makers around the world have started coalesces the various ethnic communi- action. to call for substantial mitigation and ties within those countries? Is there a But will such a legal maneuver nudge adaptation efforts. semblance of solidarity? the peoples of the Balkans to their sens- It is now widely held that a reduction in I have my doubts. If political leaders on es, getting them to build coalitions and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and an each side of the Neretva in Mostar can- to agree on a comprehensive strategy? Again, I have my doubts. Although human rights discourse, or, better yet, human rights-centered ideology, has become both fashionable and politi- cally correct among politicians, aca- demics, and celebrities, there is often a certain ambivalence by some, espe- cially when one’s own group is singled out as perpetrator rather than as victim or as bystander. Moreover, expanding the Universal Declaration by a single human right is likely to have little if any impact, given the notoriously weak enforcement of human rights law (and environmental agreements). In the end, what dooms these projects Floods in 2014 and movement is that their being dis- Serbia Daily, May 31, 2019 8 crete/limited and self-serving, respec- tively, will limit their ability to deal with what amounts to a planetary crisis, crossing every conceivable human boundary, and requiring concerted efforts by vast interconnected collec- tives. Of course, these collectives are ulti- mately reducible to individuals for whom, as the philosopher Dale Jamieson notes, “cooperativeness would be…[an] important characteristic of agents who could successfully address the problems of climate change.” But taken to its logical conclu- sion, it means that agents must address the problem in coordinated and expan- Northern Mitrovica sive ways, building from within the local But to do that will require taking on the many people. Here I take them to be and extending into the international. ethno-nationalisms that are endemic to physical objects, which by evoking The degree to which this will occur is the Balkans. This is no easy task given memories and precipitating ideas, res- dependent on the forms of governance that nationalism is a tribalism that onate cognitively, affectively, and or “ways in which societies organize includes/privileges one’s own people conatively along ethno-nationalist lines themselves…[to manage] conflict and and excludes/disqualifies all others. for a person. Building on Sherry Turkle’s achieve their goals,” notes the political It foments an attitude of us-against- insightful Evocative Object: Things We scientist Daniel J. Fiorino in Can them that is hostile to coalitions Think With, evocative objects stress “the Democracy Handle Climate Change? between those who differ, denying a inseparability of thought and feeling As Fiorino argues, some forms are more certain moral gracefulness in their deal- [and striving] in our relationship to effective than others in dealing with a ings with one another. things…[and] bring[s] together intellect problem like climate change, with full The American journalist David Wallace- and emotion [and volition].” democracies (e.g., Norway and Sweden) Wells acknowledges the connection They “color” a person’s world, making it being better than both flawed democra- between these ism’s and climate meaningful for them in a much lived cies (e.g., Serbia and Croatia) and hybrid change in his recent The Uninhabitable sense. regimes (e.g., Bosnia and Macedonia). Earth: Life After Warming, when he writes (Kosovo escapes classification in the that “just as the need for…[internation- Positive and Negative Economist Intelligence Unit [EIU] al] cooperation is paramount, indeed Democracy Index, though I am inclined necessary for anything like the world we In Kosovo, however, the same object will to think it is not a full democracy.) know to survive, we are only unbuilding resonate very differently depending on those alliances—recoiling into national- who is viewing (or thinking, recalling, Core Characteristics istic corners and retreating from collec- imagining) it—they are, in effect, tive responsibility and from each other.” “observer-sensitive.” The flag of Albania On the one hand, full democracies pos- Wallace-Wells may be right about such and photos of Adem Jashari, for sess core characteristics like free and fair “unbuilding” occurring within the United instance, are likely to resonate positive- elections, limits on governmental power, States, but parts of the Balkans have far ly with Kosovo Albanians, but negatively and an independent and diverse media, fewer alliances to “unbuild.” In fact, for Kosovo Serbs. as well as score high marks for political ethno-nationalist identities are so domi- The reverse effects are likely to be had participation and culture. nant among individuals in Bosnia and with the state flag of Serbia and photos On the other hand, flawed democra- Kosovo that they reverberate within of Slobodan Milošević. cies meet only some core criteria and entire ethnic groups leading to Also, evocative objects have both cen- are deficient in political participation “in–group” hypersolidarity and “out- tripetal and centrifugal effects on peo- and culture, whereas hybrid regimes fall group” distrust, and the formation of ple. Objects that resonate positively short in many areas. ethnic enclaves. with a person will pull them in and make These differences are important, for it is But there are differences: we find a fail- that person feel welcome, whereas the “bundle” of characteristics pos- ing “democratic” multiethnic society those that resonate negatively will push sessed by strong democracies that pro- (diverse and weakly interactive/integra- them away and make that person feel vides quality governance, which pro- tive) in Bosnia and a stagnating “demo- unwelcomed. motes the building of coalitions crucial cratic” plural monoethnic society Given that evocative objects have to effective climate action. (diverse non-interactive/non-integrative) these effects, serving as boundary And herein lies the major problem for a in Kosovo. No matter, ethnic enclaves markers that welcome some and unwel- less than full democracy: it has difficulty are the physical impediments, the bul- come others, and that ethno-nationalist building coalitions. Not only to form the warks against strong multiethnic soci- identities tend to be dominant for many, necessary political and economic eties that promote democracy and it is no wonder that ethnic enclaves exist transformations in-country, but also to peace building, as well as a robust col- in Kosovo. build coalitions internationally. laboration towards dealing with global And they do so not only as physical Specifically, if countries like Bosnia and problems like climate change. geographies, but also as geographies Kosovo are to become strong coalition But if these lived-in ethnic enclaves have of ideas, emotions, and strivings— partners against climate change, they a physical geography to them, their “lived-in” social and psychic geogra- need to work through their “post-con- materiality will be created and main- phies—of “niche cultures.” flictedness” to create a fuller democra- tained in part by evocative objects. Because enclaves impede the forma- cy and a sustainable peace. These objects can mean many things to tion of a multiethnic society that sup- Serbia Daily, May 31, 2019 9 ports the building of democracy, or, more importantly, of deliberative democracy, which emphasizes deliber- ‘No Evidence’ for Arrest ative engagement by neighbors and parliamentarians alike, the obvious for US Albanians’ Deaths approach is to attack enclaves at their core—the objects that support them. Legislating away these objects is next to impossible, and while change through mass education and attrition of recalcitrants may occur, it will be far too slow to rely on. It can be supplemented, however, by using civic design (whose goal is to create persons who work toward civic improve- ment) to change neighborhood demo- graphics and dynamics by physically removing objects that are ethno-national- ly antagonistic and by replacing them with “shared objects of positive evocativi- ty” (e.g., the neighborhood market as a place for all to congregate) or “shared objects of negative evocativity” (e.g., the bridges and roads washed out by climate change-induced flooding). President Aleksandar Vucic insisted that there is no evidence Outward Expression to detain a former senior policeman for the killings of the three Albanian-American Bytyqi brothers in Serbia in 1999 Admittedly, there is some erasing of the outward expression of culture and thus, leksandar Vucic told the Serbian They suspect that Djordjevic, who could some homogenization, but it is more parliament on Monday evening be due for early release soon, was also than offset by establishing spaces of A that “there is no evidence of who implicated in the brothers’ deaths. interaction and integration, spaces that committed the murder” of Ylli, Agron, The three Bytyqi brothers went to fight for promote both agreement and dis- and Mehmet Bytyqi – US citizens of the Kosovo Liberation Army against agreement (commonality and differ- Albanian origin who were killed in Belgrade’s forces and were arrested by ence), and the preservation of plurality. Serbia in 1999. Serbian police after the war ended Enclave insularity and polarization are Vucic said that without evidence, no when they strayed over an unmarked deterred by proximal or face-to-face one be arrested based “only on media boundary line between Serbia and conversations that endure over time, reports and lawyers’ claims”, because Kosovo. perhaps a long time. One can only “Serbia is a serious state”. After serving their sentences for illegal hope that the environment will be a The Bytyqi brothers’ family have repeat- border crossing, they were re-arrested topic of those conversations. edly accused Vucic of failing to fulfil his as they were leaving the district prison in It is through the death of the enclave promises to make progress towards the town of Prokuplje in southern Serbia, that a multiethnic society begins to take clearing up the case. taken to the police training centre in shape, offering space for the sort of They believe that Goran Radosavljevic, Petrovo Selo, and detained in a ware- democratic society that is conducive alias Guri, who was the commander of house there. for making coalitions within and a police training centre where the They were then tied up with wire by between the full range of collectives— brothers’ bodies were eventually found, unknown persons and driven to a neighborhoods, cities, municipalities, is the main suspect in the case. garbage disposal pit, where they were entities, the state, the region, the Radosavljevic, who is now a senior offi- executed with shots to the back of the International Community. cial of Vucic’s ruling Progressive Party, neck on July 9, 1999. By transitioning from a flawed democra- was briefly investigated over the crime During the trial of two Serbian police cy or a hybrid regime to a full-fledged by the Serbian prosecution, but never officers who were ultimately acquitted democracy, it is hoped that Bosnia, indicted. He denies any involvement. of transporting the brothers to the police Kosovo, and the other Balkan countries Vucic said on Monday that training centre, witnesses claimed that will indulge in more effective climate Radosavljevic could not be arrested Djordjevic gave them the order to drive action. without evidence. the Albanian-Americans to Petrovo Selo. The physicalist approach to enclave “People have been killed, the crime has Radosavljevic has insisted he was on demise proposed here is just one step in been committed, but when looking for vacation when the brothers were killed. that process. Wanting to save the plan- evidence from someone, they say ‘why In December 2018, the US government et and, thus, ourselves, is a no-brainer, you do not arrest Guri?’, and then we banned him from entering the country but sometimes our lives (and enclaves) say ‘give us the evidence’, and then because of his alleged involvement in just get in the way. We are, so to speak, there is no evidence,” he said. human rights violations in the Kosovo war. not up to the task. On Monday, the Bytyqi family appealed He said at the time that he did not want By physically changing the places in to Vucic to put pressure on Vlastimir to comment on the US State Department which we live and work, it is hoped that Djordjevic, a former high-ranking decision. ethnic enclaves can be a thing of the Serbian interior ministry official who was “I gave statements to the investigative past and thoughtful experimentation jailed by the Hague Tribunal for war authorities, I spoke about that a hun- and productive coalition building on crimes in Kosovo, to reveal more infor- dred times, so it doesn’t make sense urgent matters like climate change can mation about the case and about other that I speak about that,” Radosavljevic become a thing of the future. hidden graves from the Kosovo war. told Radio Free Europe.