THE BOSNIAN NATIONAL ISSUE WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES 
OF DUAL AND SUBNATIONAL IDENTITY Cover Image

BOSANSKO NACIONALNO PITANJE U GRANICAMA DVOJNIH I PODNACIONALNOG IDENTITETA
THE BOSNIAN NATIONAL ISSUE WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF DUAL AND SUBNATIONAL IDENTITY

Author(s): Enver Halilović
Subject(s): Political Philosophy, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Logos – Centar za kulturu I edukaciju
Keywords: Bosnian political issue; civic national identity; dual national identity; subnational identity;

Summary/Abstract: Compared to many other countries and nations, the Bosnian issue has the longest history. It has been taking place continuously from the Ottoman, through Austro-Hungarian, and the two Yugoslav periods all the way to the present day. What gives hope for its resolution today is that the main world power, the USA, is establishing political and social relations on the principles of liberalism and human rights, such that a new solution to this issue will be found within these frameworks, and not within ethnopolitical frameworks, as it has been unsuccessfully contemplated and pursued by Europe and Russia.The fundamental principles of the political Serbo-Croatian contestation of Bosnia, Bosniaks and Bosnians are a combination of historical, cultural, religious, political and economic factors of its past, from the earliest times of its existence until today. Some say everything is Serbian there and that’s why it’s pan-Serbian, and others say everything is Croatian and that’s why it’s pan-Croatian. The purpose of these two ideologies individually and together is the denationalization of Bosniaks/Bosnians and the ontological desubstantialization and destatization of the state of Bosnia, both throughout history and today. However, their mutual exclusivity over Bosnia confirms that both are untrue and a priori constructions.The political past and present of Bosnia, in its essence, depends on the West. However, while the West is fighting against the idea of a Russian world in Ukraine, at the same time, it supports the idea of a Croatian world and a Serbian world in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some time ago, it formed the RS on the wings of the doctrine of the Serbian world, just as today, through changes in the electoral law of BH, it supports the ethnocentric doctrine of the Croatian world in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, if Russia loses the war in Ukraine, not only in the military sense, but also in the political sense, if it loses the status of a world political power, then a completely different political future of the Western Balkans can be expected. However, the question is whether the West will want to do that for its own sake.Bosnian national identity is established on the values and the characteristics common to all Bosnians and Herzegovinians, all ethnic communities, and all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Common Bosnian values are numerous and diverse, but they are still in a serious historical political crisis. This is not specific to Bosnia at all, due to the administrative-political imposition and dominance of the dual national identities of Serbs and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on one hand, and the subnational identity of Bosniaks on the other. However, under the influence of factors that produce crises of national political identities, such as: modernization, economic development and urbanization, there is a weakening of the dual national identities of Serbs and Croats and the subnational identity of Bosniaks, on one hand, and the strengthening of the civic national identity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other.

  • Issue Year: 10/2022
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 25-56
  • Page Count: 32
  • Language: Bosnian