Language Rights Politics in the Former Yugoslavia and International Therapeutic Governance in Bosnia

Abstract

Herderian ideas on a nation’s soul and language have had a strong resonance in European national movements, including the Balkans. Not only have language developments been influenced by nationalism, but language politics has played a significant role in nationalist politics. Namely, the rise and fall of a common official Serbo-Croatian language has paralleled political aspirations and developments in the Balkans. The importance of language in nationalist movements has long been recognised. More recently, language rights have been taken up in international conflict management. Affirming linguistic identity is seen as enhancing the sense of group security and social stability. The OSCE envisages a ‘pluralist, multicultural model of societal organisation’, where rights protection supports ‘“integrating diversity”, that is the simultaneous maintenance of different identities and the promotion of social integration’ (Holt and Packer, 2001, p. 102).