Overcoming the Clash of Civilizations: EU Peace Strategies for Balkan Ethno-Sectarian Nationalist Conflicts

[From the introduction]. This study focuses on trends in relationships between Serb and Bulgarian ethno-sectarian majorities and their respective, Muslim minorities within a dynamic international systemic context. It does not focus on the Kosovar and ethnic Albanian national minority case more broadly throughout the Balkans, partly because Kosovo has already achieved de facto and will soon achieve de jure separation from Serbia, and partly because of space limitations. More attention is on the Bulgarian case as an example of relatively successful conflict resolution. For comparison purposes, the Serbian case is the Sandzak, a historic region straddling Serbia and Montenegro which is home to a concentration of Slavophone Muslims. Serbian nationalism meanwhile continues to suffer setbacks along with the post Cold War decline of intensity of Great Power willingness to support it as an ally in Southeastern Europe. After the separation of Montenegro from the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro, and the imminent separation secession of Kosovo, the Sandzak region, along with the Presovo valley with its ethnic Albanian population, is most likely to be one within Serbia, together with Voivodina, to witness more demands for autonomy, if not outright secession to join Bosnia. Whereas Voivodina’s largest ethnic minority consists of Hungarians, the Muslims of the historic region of Sandzak (part of which lies in now-independent Montenegro) has an ethno-sectarian concentration of “Bosniaks.” They tend to self-identify with the neighboring Bosniaks with their capital in Sarajevo in Bosnia- Herzegovina to the point that their preferred name is “Bosniak.