Spinning out of control: Rhetoric and violent conflict. Representations of 'Self' and 'Other' in Post-Yugoslavia

We examine the preconditions for the outbreak of violence in Yugoslav republics during the state dissolution in the 1990s, the role of representations of self and other. The former Yugoslavia has experienced a number of different conflicts in which many o f the background variables--such as common political history and a shared language and culture--are more or less constant, while outcomes have varied. If we can document that different patterns of rhetoric have dominated prior to the outbreak of hostiliti es in cases with diverging outcomes, that will be a strong indicator that rhetoric has influenced not only perceptions but also actions. We compare three cases that experienced civil war--Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo--with two cases with limited violence- -Slovenia and Macedonia--and two non-violent cases--Montenegro and Voivodina. Also the latter regions have undergone ethnic mobilization and conflict, but hostilities have never switched into a violent mode. Clearly, convincing explanations for the out break of violence in post-Communist societies must be able to account for the absence of violence in other regions with high degrees of ethno-political mobilization. In our project we will try to uncover systematic differences between the violent and non- violent cases. Finally, we will examine not only how rhetoric shapes conflict, but also how conflict influences rhetoric. With the cessation of hostilities the rhetorical situation does not return to status quo ante. We identify four phases in the conf licts: Under the old regime; Leading up to hostilities; During the hostilities; and After cessation of hostilities. We hypothesize that in non-violent conflicts we will see a different trajectory of rhetoric from the violent cases. If we can identify clea r patterns and dynamics here, this is of immediate relevance for conflict resolution and the establishment of a stable and viable post-conflict order not only in the post-Yugoslav world, but generally.