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Institutionalizing enemies: The consequences of reifying projection in post-conflict environments

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Abstract

The Dayton Peace Accords set out to protect the three dominant ethnic groups in Bosnia in the aftermath of the 1993–1995 War. However, the peace treaty inscribed ethnic groupings into the constitution as permanent identity constellations. Fifteen years after the cessation of military hostilities Bosnia continues to struggle with the identity limitations imposed on it by the peace treaty. Without the flexibility to create new identity frames, Bosnia remains locked in the identity terms of the conflict. The misrecognition of the nature of identity and particularly the defensive quality by which collective identity frames can protect against threat inhibit a working through of conflicts. A re-evaluation of identity narratives in the context in which they are expressed reveals the defensive purpose they serve. This article explores the problems of accepting at face value the narratives of collectivities under threat and suggests how recognition of the fluid quality of identity may require different strategies by third parties intervening into conflicts.

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Notes

  1. The G-8 states are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and USA. Turkey represents the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to the Peace Implementation Committee Steering Board.

  2. Perhaps the best-known Chaldean Christian might be Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's Foreign Minister during the first Gulf War in 1990–1991 and Deputy Prime Minister through the Invasion of Iraq in 2003. Pope Benedict elevated the Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad to the office of Cardinal in mid-October 2007.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schools of International Relations and Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Jeffrey Stevenson Murer

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  1. Jeffrey Stevenson Murer
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Murer, J. Institutionalizing enemies: The consequences of reifying projection in post-conflict environments. Psychoanal Cult Soc 15, 1–19 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2009.32

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