CYNTHIA SIMMONS
Urbicide and the Myth of Sarajevo
A
T THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY,
the economic and tech–
nological interconnectedness of the world has given rise to the
concept of the "global village." Yet, at the same time, the fall of
communism and the growing recognition of the rights of individuals
and the smaller spheres with which they identify have resulted in new
nations and increasing nationalism. Such conflicting forces of unifica–
tion and disintegration have been analyzed for some time with respect
to the Balkan Peninsula, an early testing ground for the prospects of the
"global village." The negative connotation of "balkanization" conflicts
with examples of interethnic harmony in the region and with the pro–
motion of the latter that underlay Tito's call in Yugoslavia for "broth–
erhood and unity." Historically, the reality of relations among the
diverse peoples of the Balkans is obviously more complex.
If
we attempt
any generalization, it would most likely describe neither a state of sep–
aration and enmity (balkanization) nor a condition of "brotherhood
and unity." Research from the interwar period suggests that for cen–
turies the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula lived generally peacefully,
in "brotherhood" if you will, but in
disunity.
The modern stereotype of age-old Balkan hatreds is a post-World
War I invention. In his
1934
article, "L'Unite balkanique," in
Revue
internationale des Etudes balkanique,
Jacques Ancel wrote: "An unfor–
tunate and inappropriate expression was created at the end of the war,
the 'balkanization' of Central Europe, as if the creation of new nations
issuing from the Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman monster
empires were an imitation of Balkan civilization-a model of dissension
and wars." His and others' careful study of the history of the Balkan
Peninsula as a geopolitical entity revealed a territory of isolated "cells"
of disparate populations. Small groups separated by the rugged terrain
formed small, well-functioning (if patriarchal) units of government–
"the city was a country." Ancel and his colleagues concluded that the
major source of dissension in the Balkans has been the invasion of the
"Great Powers," and more important, the wane of their influence,
which initiated a struggle for land and power in the region. In modern
