Civilisationskrig i Bosnien & Hercegovina

Emphasis of this thesis is to understand how historical and political myths can be used as a weapon in ethnopolitical conflicts. In order to examine this, the conflict between ethnic Serbs and Bosnian Muslims in the Bosnian war is used as an example, where the rhetoric’s of the Serbian aggressors are analysed through the methodology of an idea analysis. Through this analysis, the historical myth of a clash between the western civilization and the orient, are translated into five different reference points which in turn gets compared to the Serbian war rhetoric’s. The subsequent analysis shows that this historical myth in turn, can be used as an explanatory feature in how the Serbian aggressors legitimized their violence against their Bosnian Muslim enemies. The analyse also highlights that the contextual surroundings of the war played a vital role in how this myth gained an impact on its participants. In the concluding parts of this essay, the conception of the usage of historical myths are discussed in general terms, where questions regarding identity, power vacuum and war -rhetoric’s are taken into account.