“Ethnicizing” the EU's Involvement in Post-conflict Societies: The Case of Ontological Insecurity in Republika Srpska

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on ontological security by empirically investigating how the European Union (EU), which is perceived as one of the most important actors that provides means and/ or grounds for overcoming antagonisms through transformation of the ‘Self-Other’ dialectics, fails to become an agent of peace. Drawing on the case of Republika Srpska (RS), a political entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), we aim to understand how the EU’s post-conflict stabilization efforts, which, among others, presuppose the de-intensification of the antagonistic identity narratives, become entrapped in ethnopolitical narratives, and even ‘ethnicized’ by the ethnopolitical elite in RS.

Keywords

Ontological security, Republika Srpska, ethnicization, Butmir process, European Union

Citation

Faris Kočan and Rok Zupančič, “’Ethnicizing” the EU’s post-conflict societies: The case of ontological insecurity in Republika Srpska”, International Relations, Vol. 19, No. 73, 2022, pp. 113-127, DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.954772

Affiliations

• Faris KOČAN, Researcher, University of Ljubljana, Center of International Relations
• Rok ZUPANČIČ, Associate Professor, University of Ljubljana, Defense Research Center International Relations