Balkans
‘Ancient Ethnic Hatreds’
Balkanist thinking encourages Western policymakers to view conflicts in eastern and southeastern Europe in terms of “warring tribes,” “rival nationalisms” or “ancient ethnic hatreds” that need to be managed, balanced and neutralized. By projecting such negative stereotypes onto these lands and their peoples, it encourages the very conflicts Western policymakers are supposed to be resolving.
The Stabilocracy Fantasy
For decades, the West has pioneered “stabilocracy” in the Balkans, a pernicious brand of diplomacy that prefers agreement to reform. That diplomacy was exported to their relations with Kremlin — with the extreme, bloody conclusion being the war in Ukraine.
Whoopi Goldberg’s Holocaust Comment Yields a Wider Learning Moment
Because many people’s lives depend on overcoming such persistent and deeply entrenched supremacist ideologies that are visible around the world, this moment to learn should not be(come) a wasted opportunity. Clarifying the connection between racialization and dehumanization and acknowledging different manifestations of such oppressive processes in more than one geographic context is essential to understand these intricate relationships.