Balkanization
Balkanization or Balkanisation is the process involving the fragmentation of an area, country, or region into multiple smaller and hostile units.[1][2] It is usually caused by differences in ethnicity, culture, religion, and some other factors such as past grievances.
For the linguistic usage of this term, see Balkan sprachbund.
The term was first coined in the early 20th century, and found its roots in the depiction of events during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918), specifically referring to incidents that transpired earlier in the Balkan Peninsula.[3]
The term is pejorative;[4] when sponsored or encouraged by a sovereign third party, it has been used as an accusation against such third-party nations. Controversially,[5] the term is often used by voices for the status quo to underscore the dangers of acrimonious or runaway secessionism. The Balkan peninsula is seen as an example of shatter belts in geopolitics.[6]
Origins of the term[edit]
Coined in the early 20th century, the term "Balkanization" traces its origins to the depiction of events during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and the First World War (1914–1918). It did not emerge during the gradual secession of Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire over the 19th century, but was coined at the end of First World War. Albania was the only addition to the existing Balkan map at that time, as other nations had already formed in the nineteenth century.[7] The term was initially employed by journalists and politicians, who used it as a conceptual tool to interpret the evolving global order resulting from the collapse of the Habsburg and Romanov Empires and the subsequent secession of Balkan nations following the Ottoman Empire's disintegration in the nineteenth century. After the Second World War (1939–1945), the term underwent significant development, expanding beyond its original context to encompass diverse fields such as linguistics, demography, information technology, gastronomy, and more. This expansion extended its descriptive reach to various phenomena, often with pejorative connotations. In response, critical scholars in the late 20th and early 21st centuries sought to denaturalize and reclaim 'balkanization'.[3]
During the 1980s, the Lebanese academic and writer Georges Corm used the term balkanization to describe attempts by supporters of Israel to create buffer states based on ethnic backgrounds in the Levant to protect Israeli sovereignty.[13] In 2013 the French journalist Bernard Guetta writing in the Libération newspaper applied the term to:
