Overcoming Ethnicity

Abstract

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF ETHNICITY in war-torn Bosnia and Kosovo is not the end of a process of institution building, it is the beginning. There is a need to rise above ethnicity, foster common cultural identity, and accept universal principles like human rights. This chapter discusses institution building, threat and promise, as well as collective goods and individual incentives in relation to the goal of rising above the constraints of ethnicity. In the context of successful coercion by outside powers, regional antagonists can engage in commerce and learn to cooperate. Post–Cold War Central European countries like Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic moved toward market economies without the need for coercive diplomacy by interventionist forces. In war-torn Bosnia and Kosovo, however, coercion and brute force were necessary before globalization could work its magic.