Mobilizing for Ethnic Violence? Ethno-National Political Parties and the Dynamics of Ethno-Politicization Adis Maksic Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Planning, Governance and Globalization Gerard Toal, Committee Chair Giselle Datz Robert Donia Joel Peters November 24th, 2014 Alexandria, VA Keywords: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republic of Georgia, Serbian Democratic Party, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Ethnic Nationalism Mobilizing for Ethnic Violence? Ethno-National Political Parties and the Dynamics of Ethno- Politicization Adis Maksic Abstract On July 12th, 1990 the Serb Democratic Party of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SDS BiH) held its founding assembly. Less than five months later, it participated in the November 1990 elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), winning a decisive majority of the vote of ethnic Serbs. Yet, SDS BiH was not an ordinary political party. In the sixteen months that followed the elections, it initiated a series of activities that eroded the power of BiH institutions to which it had been elected. SDS BiH declared its own organs superior to those of BiH and established exclusive control in Serb-majority areas. In early 1992, it united these areas into a single Serb Republic, formed an exclusively Serb armed force, and set out to violently expand the territory that would be incorporated into the new statelet. This study seeks to advance an understanding of the role of ethno-nationalist agents in the outbreak of violent conflicts fought in the name of ethnic nations by analyzing the activities of SDS BiH on the political homogenization of Serbs in the two years leading up to the 1992 onset of violence in BiH. It incorporates the tools of discourse analysis and the recent findings in the studies of human cognition, identifying the agency of SDS BiH in the power of the Party‟s discourse to produce affective sensibilities that served its nationalist agenda. It argues that this engineering of affect was crucial for constituting the dispersed individuals of Serb ethnic background as a palpable political group, and preparing them for armed mobilization. The analysis also argues that ethno-nationalist agency can be properly understood only by considering the case-specific structural factors with which all agents interact. Toward this point, it draws contrast between the agency of SDS BiH and that of the National Movement in the Republic of Georgia, showing that ethnic structures hold a greater explanatory value in the Georgian case. Rather than departing from pre-given ethnic groups, both case studies suggest that conflict analyses should problematize the dynamic interaction between the dominant ethno- nationalist agents and ethnic structures, which produce ethnic groups, ethnic interests and sides to armed conflicts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who helped me on this journey; to those who encouraged me, who inspired me, who assisted me with research, who read my work and offered comments. First and foremost, I want to thank my mother, Esada, whose steadfast and energetic encouragement was the wind in my sails. I would like to thank my incredible advisor Dr. Gerard Toal, for guiding me to this road, and always staying by my side until I reached the destination. I was fortunate to have met you and learn so much from you, about politics and about life. I also thank Dr. Robert Donia for priceless comments, encouragement, and for generously sharing his treasured knowledge on the Bosnian conflict. I thank Dr. Giselle Datz and Dr. Joel Peters, whose stimulating classes and commentaries have left a large imprint in this work. Special thanks are due to Sead Turcalo for hours of thought-provoking conversations, and for selfeless research assistance without which this road would have been considerably more difficult. I thank Sean Henneghan for his generosity during my two-year stay in Washington DC that allowed me to focus my time on academic endeavors. Special thanks are due to Mirela Vasic for reading my work and offering valuable comments. I am also thankful to those many individuals who also contributed with research collection, stimulating conversations, words of encouragement, and assistance in dealing with distractions. A distinguished mention is due to Emira Kasumovic, Jordi Martin, Edina Becirevic, Natalie Borecki, Natalia Peral, Sudbin Music, Giorgi Gogsadze, Mari Samkharadze, Kornely Kakachia, Nino Dalakashvili, Patrick Henneghan, Albina Sylaj, Marjan Zdravkovski, Sonja Ackar, and Mario Bukna. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF ETHNO-POLITICIZATION…………………….1 Ethno-national Identity and Conflict: From Ethnic to Ethnicized……………………………..7 Agents and Meanings: The Discursive Politics of Identity…………………………………..13 Beyond Signs: Metaphors, Mental Structures and Affective Thinking…………………........20 Synthesizing Discourse and Affect: Toward a Regime of Feeling…………………………...23 Political Parties as Discourse Coalitions……………………………………………………...29 Mode of Inquiry: The Three-fold Approach………………………………………………….32 Data Gathering………………………………………………………………………………..36 Organization of chapters………...………………………………………………………….38 INTERACTING WITH THE FIELD: SDS BiH AND POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES………………………………..............................................................................41 New Opportunities and the Emergence of SDS BiH………….………….…………………..43 From Yugoslav party-state to nationalizing states.…….……….………..……………........43 From Yugoslavisation to ethnicization in Bosnia-Herzegovina…...……………………….53 Political pluralisation and expansion of opportunities in BiH.……...……………………...56 The dynamic of initial ethno-politicization in BiH.…….…………..………………………59 Political Possibilities and SDS as an Agent……………………….………………………….67 The political opportunity structure in the 1990 election campaign………………………...68 Yugoslav disintegrative processes and the post-election dynamics in BiH………………...74 Croatia‟s de facto independence and the divisions in BiH……………….…………..…….80 International termination of Yugoslavia and the path to war...……….……………..……..84 Concluding Remarks.…….…………….………..…….……………………………………..90 DISSEMINATING DISCOURSE: ORGANIZATIONAL REPERTOIRE, TECHNOLOGICAL MEDIUMS AND SDSBiH……..………………………………………...91 Organizational Repertoire…………………………………………………………………….95 From informal relations to political mobilization……….……………….………………...96 Organizations of the broader discourse coalition….............……….……………………..106 iv The Serbian Orthodox Church…………………………….………………………………110 Formal structure of SDS BiH….…...……………………………………………………..113 The broader coalition of SDS BiH..……………………………………………………….118 Institutional modality….…………………………………………………………………..119 Parainstitutional modality….………………………………………………………….......121 The Technologies of Dissemination………………………………………………………....124 Money…………………………………………………………………………………......124 The Media…………………………………………………………………………………129 Weaponry………………………………………………………………………………….135 Concluding Remarks………………………………………………………………………...145 FEELING THE NATION: SDS BIH AND THE DISCURSIVE FRAMINGS………………147 Master Frame….…….……………….……………………………………………………....150 The ethno-national ontology of SDS…………………..………..………….………….....151 Master narration of the political moment……..……………….………….……………...155 Framing Collective Action…………………………………………………………………..163 Pre-election mobilization……..………………………………………….……………….164 Post-election affective escalation……..………….……………….…….………………...185 Framing collective action after Croatia‟s separation.......….………….……………….....194 Post- Badinter escalation and ethno-separatist mobilization….………………………….206 Concluding Remarks…………...……………………………………………………………218 COMPARING THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT AND SDS BIH……………..221 Comparing Political Opportunity Structures………...………………………………………222 The conditions of emergence: Glasnost….………….……………………..……………..227 The fallout of April 9th……………….……………………………………..…………….233 The structures of ethnopolitical conflict…...……….……………………….……………235 Comparing Dissemination Modalities……………………………………………………….240 Organizing dissent………………………………………………………………………..241 v Dissemination technologies……….……………………………………….………….....246 Comparing Discursive Framings………..………………………………………………....249 Comparing master frames…………………….……………………………………….....251 Comparing collective action frames………………………………………..….…….…..259 CONCLUSION: THE MAKING OF AN AFFECTIVE COMMUNITY………….….…….271 Nation as an Affective Complex…………………………………………………..……….275 Affect and Structure……………………………………………………………..…………276 Categories and Ethno-nationalism……………...……………………………..……….......278 Rediscovering the Lost Affect………………...…….………...……………………….......280 EPILOGUE………………………………………………………………………………......282 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………....293 vi Chapter 1 Understanding the Dynamics of Ethno-Politicization The first week of April 1992 was a defining moment in the politics of Bosnia- Herzegovina (BiH). Two years of ethno-political conflict between the three ethno-national parties that governed the former Yugoslav Republic were culminating in widespread violence. In the capital city of Sarajevo, rival mono-ethnic paramilitaries roamed the streets, setting up roadblocks and checkpoints. As subsequent events would show, Bosnia-Herzegovina was descending into a three and a half year-long war. Amidst this breakdown of order, on April 5th, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens filled the square in front of the Parliament of Bosnia- Herzegovina to protest the turn of events. While the gathering