Prelates and Politicians in Bosnia: The Role of Religion in Nationalist Mobilisation

Abstract

The role of historical and cultural influences in recent Balkan warfare has been the subject of considerable debate among commentators both within and outside the former Yugoslavia. For example, some observers, who might be considered members of the primordial hatred school, have emphasized the cyclical role of “ancient enmities” and atavistic impulses in the Balkans. In contrast, another group of analysts, who have subscribed to the paradise lost approach, focus on the long periods during which populations of different languages, religions, and other facets of Balkan ethnic identity, managed to peacefully co-exist. This second perspective downplays historical factors and attributes the violence and savagery of recent years to nationalist leaders who whipped up antagonisms to suit their own political agendas.

Rejection of Radical Nationalism in Wartime Yugoslavia: The Case of Tuzla (1990–1995)

“…In very broad terms most literature agrees that it was the Croatian and Serbian long-standing nationalist goals for independent national states (given that they were also the two largest ethnic groups in Yugoslavia) that pulled Yugoslavia in opposing directions (Gagnon 2004;Glenny 1992;Todorova 1997;Woodward 1995) destructively tearing it apart, as well as the failure in the process of liberalisation from socialist economy to a free market economy, whereby then Prime Minister Ante Markovic's reforms played an important role but were sabotaged by then Serbian and Croatian Presidents, Milosevic and Tudjman respectively. Both feared the economic stabilisation of Yugoslavia, for they would lose their politically charged ethno-national appeal as their only political tool to remain in power (Caplan 2005;Cohen 1997;Sachs 2005). Their aim was simple, to tear Yugoslavia apart by shifting the focus from the critical national economic priorities led by political moderate then Yugoslav Prime Minister, Ante Markovic, to the political ethno-nationalist issues, which were then largely irrelevant to most citizens (Caplan 2005;Gagnon 2004;Gligorov 1997;Jovic 2003a;Woodward 1995).…”

’Žena I Svet’ and ‘Hrvatica’: An Analysis of Two Women’s Magazines in Interwar Serbia and Croatia (1925-1941)

“…Iveković, 2002, p. 526]. He is seen in international scholarship as "the leading cleric at the time of the World War II Ustasha-inspired ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Bosnia", [Cohen, 1997] who had given his blessing to the Ustaša regime, later to rescind [Miller, 2005;Steindorff, 1999], though most of official Croatian historiography tends to see him in a rather positive light [Horvat, 1996;Rogić, 2001;Štefan, 1999]. Stepinac has afterwards become "a martyr for the 'Holy Croat Cause'" [I.…”