What is the role of ethnonationalism in hindering sustainable peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, and how can it be addressed? This paper, published by the Berghof Research Centre for Constructive Conflict Management, argues that ethnonationalism complicates the peacebuilding process by preventing reconciliation and allowing individuals to blame entire ethnic groups. Three steps are needed to pursue the twin, interrelated goals of both dealing with the past constructively and furthering peacebuilding in the region: (1) public acknowledgment; (2) deconstructing the myth of ethnic war; and (3) reconstructing identities and de-victimisation.
Ethnonationalism is the belief that a group of people who are tied to a piece of land function as a group organism. Ethnonationalists rationalise ethnic-inspired conflict as a necessity for safety – believing that only an ethnically ‘clean’ state can guarantee safety. This ideology is a barrier to peacebuilding efforts in that it creates a self-perpetuating identity cycle that prevents de-victimisation processes. Additionally, self-interested individuals have been resorting to ethnonationalism to further their political or economic motives.
Reconciliation is a multidimensional process in that it requires individuals to acknowledge the truth of what happened, seek justice and issue forgiveness. These three dimensions apply to two kinds of reconciliation: reconciliation to pain and loss and reconciliation with former enemies. The peacebuilding process is complex and involves many levels of society:
- Governments, parliaments and political parties often use ethnonationalist rhetoric as a tool for gaining public support and power. This prevents the top-down peacebuilding measures that are necessary for social reconstruction.
- Local NGOs struggle to fill the gap left by the governments but lack support. Knowledgeable international NGOs are limited by their outsider status and often encounter problems building trust with the local population. Local and regional peace and human rights organisations often unintentionally push people away from the process by too vehemently opposing the popular tendency towards ethnic nationalism.
- Survivors and victims’ groups help individuals find missing loved ones, have the truth acknowledged and hold perpetrators responsible for crimes. Unfortunately, many of these groups are organised according to ethnicity and can be counterproductive to the peacebuilding process.
- Ex-combatants and war veterans’ organisations have much potential to contribute to peacebuilding. Veterans should be included as messengers for peace.
- Media, arts and culture create a common platform for collaboration and has been used to bridge the gap between groups.
While these groups are working towards peacebuilding and reconciliation, they are still a minority. To be effective, peacebuilding must become institutionalised in all spheres of society. Political leaders must be more involved with peacebuilding measures. Given the current lack of top-down peacebuilding, civil society actors face a significant challenge to learn how to motivate and involve authorities in their activities, to generate support from them and give support to them. Citizens must take steps to end ethnopolitical behaviour from the grass-roots level. For example, they should stop voting for candidates who derive power from ethnopolitical discourse.
Peacebuilding and dealing with the past constructively are twin processes that strengthen and give legitimacy to each other. In order to pursue both of these processes in the region the following steps are needed:
- Public acknowledgment of misdeeds and suffering on all sides.
- Deconstructing the myth of ‘ethnic war’: It is important to raise awareness of the root causes of war, which did not consist in ethnic differences or so-called ancient hatreds.
- Reconstructing identities and de-victimisation: It is important to empower people to abandon the role of victim in order to defy ethnocratic authorities.
