Huntington and Bowen agree on the source of the conflict in the Bosnian War, which they attribute to ambition. All of the groups were ambitious to appropriate the land resources for which they were contending. The authors also agree that all of the groups were eager to utilize the values of external sources, both religious and political, to actualize their ambition.
To what extent do Huntington and Bowen agree (or disagree) on the roots of the Bosnian war?
Huntington and Bowen each perceive the source of international conflict in different terms; the former author believes it is due to a clash of civilizations, while the latter believes that it is an effect of nationalism. Nonetheless, there are still points of similarity regarding their opinions as to the root of the Bosnian war. This document hypothesizes that the chief commonality agreed upon by the authors regarding the cause of the Bosnian war is partisanship ambition related to the appropriation of land, and the propagation of values from outside sources that fueled the conflict.
Central to the supporting evidence that both Bowen and Huntington agree that the ambitious tendencies of the respective participants in the Bosnian war (which includes Croatians, Serbs and Bosnians) was responsible for this conflict is the importance each author places upon land, and the expansion of land for those respective groups. Each author states that the participants in this encounter were essentially desiring to claim the same land, and to thereby control the actions (and the very presence) of other groups on that land. Bowen presents the fact that most conflicts between partisan groups hinge upon "getting more power, land, or other resources" (Bowen 1996, 3). In the particular case of the Bosnian war, one of the causes that Bowen cites is the desire of Serbs to claim the territory occupied by the other ethnicities -- namely the Bosnians and the Croatians. The following quotation demonstrates this point. "Serbs drew on memories of short-lived Serb national states to claim their right to expand outward to encompass other peoples" (Bowen 1996, 4), and the land those peoples were on. An analysis of Huntington's essay also reveals his belief that the ambition to expand territory was at the root of the Bosnian conflict. The author states that "at the micro level, adjacent groups along the fault lines between civilizations struggle, often violently, over the control of territory"(Huntington 1993, 27). To properly understand this quotation, it is important to realize that the author stratifies civilizations to include "Western… Islamic" and "Slavic-Orthodox" (Huntington 1993, 24); Croatians, Bosnians, and Sebs each belong to one of these categories. Even more specific to the Bosnian war, Huntington claims that "the struggle between Slavs…on their borders…dates back to the foundation of the Russian state more than a thousand years ago" (Huntington 1993, 34). Clearly, both authors state within their articles that the ambition to claim and control territory was one of the fundamental causes of the Bosnian war.
Additionally, it is interesting to note the degree of importance that each other author ascribes to the ambitions of outsiders in creating the conflict between these three groups in the former state of Yugoslavia. One of the primary tenets Bowen discusses at length within his article is the fact that many armed conflict between different ethnicities is founded if not directly aided by a powerful, foreign influence that has its own colonial or expansionist agenda in doing so. In the Bosnian war, the author alludes to the fact that in the early part of the 20th century, Nazi Germany helped spur numerous acts of violence that contributed to the Bosnian war. He states that "Croat nationalists formed an underground organization called Ustash…and it was this group, to which the Nazis gave control of Croatia" (Bowen 1996, 5), and alludes to the fact that it was this degree of control that allowed Croats to begin expelling Serbs from the region. The influence of outside powers with their own political and religious agendas is also cited by Huntington as one of the chief reasons for the Bosnian war. The author mentions how members of the civilizations represented by the three groups attempted to aid them in this struggle. He references the support of "Iranian leaders...Muslims from over two dozen Islamic countries…and the governments of Saudi Arabia" (Huntington 1993, 34) providing monetary, military, and other support for the Muslim Bosnians. He discusses similar incidents involving Western powers (such as the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church) recognizing and supporting Croatia. In this respect, the ambition that fueled the actions of partisans in the Bosnian war extended to groups outside of the area of the conflict for the ulterior motives of those involved.
The primary point of dissent with the hypothesis offered in this document is due to the differences in the articles between Bowen and Huntington. The main difference is the conviction each author has in the nature of armed conflict in general. Bowen, for his part, believes that armed conflict between ethnic groups pertains to the traditional role of nationalism (Bowen 1996, 4), which has been used as a dividing force especially during the colonialism era. Huntington, however, believes that the source of armed conflict stems from a conflict between civilizations (Huntington 1993, 22), which encompass more than one nationality and yet represent a common way of life between nation-states. However, it is crucial to note that despite this ideological difference, both authors attest to the degree of ambition for land and for external values (pertaining to religion and politics) that created the Bosnian War. This point is immensely significant because it implies that despite their ideological points of differences, each author concurs that it was ambition that fostered the Bosnian War.
An examination of the evidence demonstrated in the respective texts of Bowen and Huntington demonstrates the veracity of the hypothesis in this document, that both authors strongly agree that the root of the Bosnian war was founded in the ambitions of the participants for territory and for the continuation of external values. Those values are related to politics and religion. Despite their different conceptions of what causes conflict in general, they predominantly agree as to the cause of the Bosnian War.
Bibliography
Huntington, SamuelP 1993.The clash of civilizations? Foreign Affairs 72:3 (Summer): 22-?50.
Bowen, JohnR. 1996. The myth of global ethnic conflict. Journal of Democracy 7(4): 3-?14.
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