Identity, Ontological Security and Europeanisation in Republika Srpska (Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations)

✍ Scribed by Faris Kočan

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 225
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book discusses the impact of the process of accession to the European Union (EU) – i.e. Europeanisation – on the formulation of the ethnic identity of Bosnian Serbs and the political identity of Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The centrepiece of the book is an examination of how it is possible that the expected effect of Europeanisation on ethnic identities in a post-conflict environment – a transformation of ethnic identities through desecuritisation – does not materialise in the case of BiH and the RS. The book starts from the assumption that the political elite in the RS uses Europeanisation as a context for the securitization of two sources of threats – the internal and external Other. This prevents the transformation of ethnic identities in BiH, and as a result also the desecuritisation of antagonisms among the ethnic groups of BiH. The results show that any attempt at a more active engagement by the EU and international community was interpreted by the RS political elite as Bosniak agenda aimed against the RS. In this respect, the book demonstrates that BiH’s EU accession process or a clearer EU perspective alone in scrutinized critical junctures did not outweigh the potential costs for the RS political elite if reforms aimed at creating a more functional BiH were to succeed. In all three analysed critical junctures, the political elite in RS presented motions for a more functional BiH as attempts to centralise the country and framed them as the beginning of the end for the RS as a political entity.

✦ Table of Contents

Funding
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction
References
Chapter 2: Europeanisation, Securitisation and Ontological Insecurity
2.1 Europeanisation as a Context for the Transformation of (Ethnic) Identities
2.1.1 From Institutional to Ideational Diffusion: Ideational Socialisation as an Enabler of the Transformation of (Ethnic) Identities
2.1.2 Europeanisation of the Internal Other in the EU’s Common Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Framework
2.2 Securitisation Theory, Its Operationalisation and Points of Ruptures
2.2.1 Expanding the Securitisation Research Field: From a Philosophical to a Sociological Approach
2.2.2 Conceptualising Desecuritisation in the Field of Identity Transformation
2.3 The Ontology of Ontological Security
2.3.1 Ontological Security and Identity Challenges
2.3.2 The Weakness of Securitisation Theory for the Analysis of Ontological (In)security
2.3.3 Introducing Points of Ruptures and the Social and Material Environment of a Political Entity into the Framework of Ontological (In)security
2.4 Instead of a Conclusion: Understanding Europeanisation as a Context Enabling the Transformation of (Ethnic) Identities, (De)securitisation and Ontological (In)security
References
Chapter 3: Imagining the Bosnian Serb Ethnic Identity: Historical Analysis
3.1 Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Arrival of the South Slavs Until the End of the Second World War (Second Half of the Sixth Century till 1945)
3.2 Imagining Bosnian Serb Ethnic Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina After the Second World War (1945–1990)
3.3 Imagining Bosnian Serb Ethnic Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the First Multi-party Elections Until the End of the Bosnian War (1990–1995)
3.4 Imagining Bosnian Serb Ethnic Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Context of Europeanisation (1995–)
3.5 History in the Service of Recreating Ethnic Exclusivism—An Attempt to (Re)create Bosnian Serb Ethnic Identity and/or the Ontological Security of Republika Srpska?
References
Chapter 4: Discourse Analysis of Securitisation Acts of the Political Elite in Republika Srpska
4.1 Discourse Analysis of Media Reports in the Negotiating Period for Signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (2005–2007)
4.2 Discourse Analysis of Media Reports During the Prud and Butmir Processes (2009–2010)
4.3 Discourse Analysis of Media Reports During the Announcement and Implementation of the Referendum on the Day of Republika Srpska (2015–2016)
4.4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Chapter 6: Appendix
6.1 Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Discourse: Operationalisation
References
Index