The Geostrategic Aspects of the Encounters and Conflicts of Religious Cultures and the Civilizations in the Balkans
The Geostrategic Aspects of the Encounters and Conflicts of Religious Cultures and the Civilizations in the Balkans

Summary/Abstract: Starting from the thesis that the Balkans represented, both regarding its geopolitical position and its culturological status, not only in the past but in the mod-ern times as well, the zone of "transition and choice", the author of this paper dis-cusses the relation between the process of modernization and religion, especially the role of some forms of religious cultures in geostrategic confrontations on this territory. The paper first explores the analytical possibilities and limitations of particular theo-ries and theoretical concepts (such as the theory of the world system, modernization, the cul-tural context and the conflict between civilization and acculturalization) in or-der to pro-ceed, from the standpoint of the theory of conflict and permeation of various cultures, to reconside the issues concerning the influence of modern global, social and political strategies on this territory; in this context, an attempt is made to explore the potential for "permeability", adaptive capacities and resistance of particular national and religious cultures with respect to their geopolitical effect. By pointing to a positive role of the globalization process, modernization and acculturalization in modern soci-ety, the author thinks that modern world society is increasingly becoming an open so-ciety (cherishing multiculturality as well as ethnic and religious tolerance of differ-ences) affirming the phenomenon of a "culture with no borders". The author also critically warns about opposing tendencies of fragmentation of the worlds' society and of the processes of "planetary tribalism". In this context, the author analyzes the en-counter and conflict of religious culture in the Balkans regarding the present state (of Orthodoxy, Islam and Catholicism), thus pointing to their integrative and disintegra-tive abilities, to the phenomenon of the mingling of cultures, as well as to the need for the preservation of cultural and national identity and the redefinition of the issues of sover-eignty in the light of newly induced changes at the end of the 20th century.

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