THE IMPACT OF INTERETHNIC CONTACTS ON THE POTENTIAL FOR OVERCOMING DIVISIONS IN POSTCONFLICT SOCIETIES

Abstract

Denisa Kostovicova, a professor at the Institute of European Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is the author of the book “Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes.” The book is dedicated to “Those seeking justice after atrocities and those assisting in that search.” In this work, Kostovicova was interested in communication among members of different ethnic groups, going beyond just the violence in the former Yugoslavia. Specifically, the violence of the 1990s and the violence at the beginning of the 21st century in the former Yugoslavia inherited a narrative conflict, a verbal conflict of visions. Verbal confrontation is particularly evident when it comes to war crimes or suffering in the relatively recent past. Dominant ethnocentric public discourses have hindered and continue to hinder reconciliation. “Reconciliation by Stealth” is precisely the result of the author’s efforts to examine and verify the negative impact of public discourses on the process of interethnic reconciliation.