The role of political elites in the process of identity reconstruction: the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The study starts with the general hypothesis that radically different interpretations of the Bosnian War (1992-1995) in the post-war BiH determine the construction of mutually exclusive identities of its constitutive peoples. After more than two decades of post-war transition, these identities have acquired structural qualities, including the one of strategic selectivity, which empowers ethnopolitics and discriminates its alternatives, and vice versa, the ethnopolitics reproduce mutually exclusive identities and the political order built on them. The described mechanism maintains political crisis and ethnic divisions in the ‘Dayton’ BiH, and candidates this state for a case of protracted social conflict. The theoretical part of the study discusses the basic human needs theories, and the correlation of identity, as one of the fundamental needs, and political elites, their strategies and politics, in particular. The aim is to contribute to further understanding of identity as a political resource and an instrument of political governance, or governmentality. The discussion is primarily based on international relations and peace studies literature, mostly works of John Burton and Edward Azar, among others. The methodological approach of this study is interpretive; its primary method is the discourse analysis, with the speaker/statement unit of study. Discourses and practices of Bosniak, Serbian, and Croatian political elite, mainly their identity-related content and narratives on War, victim, and state are the subject of this study. The subject is limited to the territory of BiH, although it includes statements of representatives of Serbia and Croatia, and refers to the period from 2012 to 2019. The most important conclusion of the study is that interpretations of War and mutually exclusive identities produce a political situation in BiH known as “the continuation of war by other means”, or the protracted social conflict. Nevertheless, that does not make BiH an exception, but a part of broader international trends

U disertaciji se polazi od pretpostavke da suštinski različite interpretacije rata (1992-1995) u posleratnoj BiH uslovljavaju konstrukciju međusobno isključivih identiteta njenih konstitutivnih naroda. Tako konstruisani identiteti vremenom se strukturalizuju, te postaju nepropustljivi prema neetničkim politikama. S druge strane, etnopolitike koje ova strukturna selektivnost podstiče, povratno ojačavaju dominantne konstrukcije identiteta i reprodukuju postojeće odnose moći. Tako se politička kriza i društevni rascepi održavaju u celokupnom posleratnom periodu, što kandiduje „dejtonsku“ BiH za slučaj sukoba dugog trajanja. Teorijski deo disertacije obuhvata raspravu o teorijama ljudskih potreba i vezi identiteta, kao jedne od ključnih ljudskih potreba, sa političkim elitama, njihovim politikama i strategijama. Time se želi doprineti razumevanju identiteta kao političkog resursa i instrumenta političkog vladanja, tj. upravljanja stanovništvom. U tu svrhu koristi se literatura koja uglavnom pripada međunarodnim odnosima i studijama mira, pre svega radovi Džona Bartona i Edvarda Azara. Metodološki pristup je interpretativistički, ključna metoda je analiza diskursa, a jedinica analize je govorni čin, stav pripadnika triju etnopolitičkih elita u BiH. Empirijski predmet analize su diskursi i prakse bošnjačke, srpske i hrvatske političke elite, odnosno njihovi identitetski sadržaji, koji se prvenstveno tiču tema rata, žrtve i države. Predmet je prostorno ograničen na teritoriju BiH, ali obuhvata i izjave predstavnika Srbije i Hrvatske, dok se u vremenskom smislu odnosi na period između 2012. i 2019. godine. Glavni zaključak disertacije je da interpretacije rata i međusobno konstituisani identiteti u posleratnoj BiH tvore situaciju poznatu kao „nastavak rata drugim sredstvima“, što pretvara BiH u sukob dugog trajanja. No, to ne čini BiH izuzetkom, već delom međunarodnih tendencija