Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict

by Roger D. Petersen

• ISBN13: 9780521281263
• ISBN10: 0521281261
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Conflicts involve powerful experiences. The residue of these experiences is captured by the concept and language of emotion. Indiscriminate killing creates fear; targeted violence produces anger and a desire for vengeance; political status reversals spawn resentment; cultural prejudices sustain ethnic contempt. These emotions can become resources for political entrepreneurs. A broad range of Western interventions are based on a view of human nature as narrowly rational. Correspondingly, intervention policy generally aims to alter material incentives ("sticks and carrots") to influence behavior. In response, poorer and weaker actors who wish to block or change this Western implemented "game" use emotions as resources. This book examines the strategic use of emotion in the conflicts and interventions occurring in the Western Balkans over a twenty-year period. The book concentrates on the conflicts among Albanian and Slavic populations (Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, South Serbia), along with some comparisons to Bosnia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Background and Theory
Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Ethnic Conflict	p. 3
Emotions as Resources	p. 23
The Strategic Use of Emotions, I: The Distribution of Emotions	p. 52
Intervention Games	p. 64
The Strategic Use of Emotions, II: Developing Strategies; Examples from Non-Balkan Cases	p. 80
The Strategic Use of Emotions, III: Generating Hypotheses	p. 97
Cases and Tests
Background to Western Intervention in the Balkans	p. 107
The Case of the Roma in Kosovo	p. 130
Background to Kosovo	p. 137
Waiting for the West	p. 147
Kosovo Intervention Games, I	p. 164
Kosovo Intervention Games, II	p. 184
Kosovo Conclusions	p. 193
South Serbia	p. 203
Macedonia	p. 222
Bosnia	p. 243
Montenegro	p. 269
Conclusion	p. 290
A Note on Names	p. 301
Alternative Arguments	p. 302
References	p. 313
Index	p. 329
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