It's the economy, stupid!

[treize64]

Can someone explain to me why the conflict in the Balkans (I'm referring primarily to the Croatian War for Independence and the Bosnian War) has been and is being called ethnic conflict when all the participants to my knowledge were ethnic Slavs and the salient difference was religious affiliation?

Is there something I'm missing here?

Comments

[nwhyte]

You're surely not saying that it would have been a more sensible conflict if they were speaking different languages, or had different skin colours????!!!!????

[treize64]

Point well taken.

I guess this weariness arises from fruitless efforts of trying to make some sort of sense of the whole thing. At first, everyone was giving the "ancient hatreds" argument, which got very old very fast. Then it became all about economic opportunism. And I've found that no single explanation satisfactorily explains away the chaos and needless tragedy.

Haha, maybe a career in international politics isn't my calling after all. ::grin::