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What Should American Peace Activists Know About the Balkans?
Author(s) -
Jokić Aleksandar
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/0149-0508.00238
Subject(s) - politics , ideology , geopolitics , scholarship , democracy , action (physics) , political science , political economy , sociology , law , physics , quantum mechanics
Peace activists wanting to immerse themselves in helping activities in a remote region often fall victims to ideology and political correctness pushed by powerful states engaged in the pursuit of their own geopolitical goals in the area. The main source of this tragic gullibility is in the language employed to describe a specific conflict. In this respect the language of “human rights” and “democracy” can be particularly dangerous. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of recent Balkan conflicts in the former (and current) Yugoslavia. Exposing several of these “word games” pertaining to Yugoslavia, as they have unfolded in Western politics, media, and scholarship, illustrates a wider problem. The importance of language cannot be understated, given the subtle ways it can be used to affect what peace activists, perhaps mistakenly, may find an appropriate course of action.