Soft Borders Rethinking Sovereignty and Democracy
While sovereignty is increasingly contested within academic circles, most recent military conflicts have been over issues of sovereignty in some form. Focusing on Yugoslavia in the 1990s, this book explores the issues surrounding 'sovereignty' and calls f
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Soft Borders Rethinking Sovereignty and Democracy
Julie Mostov
SOFT BORDERS
Copyright © Julie Mostov, 2008. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-1-4039-6553-0 All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-52895-0
ISBN 978-0-230-61244-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230612440 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication data Mostov, Julie. Soft borders : rethinking sovereignty and democracy / by Julie Mostov. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4039-6553-6 1. Former Yugoslav republics—Boundaries. 2. Former Yugoslav republics—Politics and government. 3. Nationalism—Former Yugoslav republics. 4. Sovereignty. I. Title. JN9670.M67 2008 320.1'50949709049—dc22
2007047203
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Westchester Book Group. First Edition: May 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
vii
1
Introduction
2
Locations and Boundaries of Sovereignty
19
3
Sovereignty and Ethnocracy
39
4
The Politics of National Identity
57
5
Democratic Polities: Thin Bonds and Soft Borders
79
6 Transnational Citizens in Multiple Polities 7
Reconstructing the Polity
1
99 123
Notes
147
Bibliography
187
Index
207
Preface
D
uring the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars in the region, numerous journalists and pundits confidently explained the tragedies of displacement, destruction, death, and horrifying violence in terms of ancient hatreds. “Those people have long histories of bloody conflicts—they cannot live together.” This was not the story as I understood it. As a political theorist who had lived, studied, and worked there at various times since the 1970s, I tried to tell a different story—a story of power struggles over territory and resources, boundaries and interests, and terms of belonging. These were struggles waged through national dreams filled with heroic battles, tragic losses, and imagined victories and over ethnicized bodies and sacralized spaces. The conflicts were not spun out of thin air; but their complex roots were tightly linked to the politics of naming, the mapmaking of competing ethno-national “leaders,” and a gendered rhetoric of myth, memory, and “naturalized” boundaries. In the nationalist imaginary of guardians, warriors, and heroes, there was no place for citizens. The guardians’ quest for control pretended to democratic norms, framed in the language of self-determination and sovereignty, but it betrayed a disdain for individuals, their choices, and any notio
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