Balkans, global migration, ethnic conflict, and class struggle

A decade after the end of the war in the Balkans in 2000, the region remains in a state of upheaval and uncertainty as the process of global migration, ethnic conflict, and class struggle vis-á-vis the European Union continues, and even expands. Even the very concept of Europe seems at stake. While the military conflict was still under way, there was no agreement as to whether the Balkans was part of Europe. Advocates of military and political intervention during the war in Bosnia, or later the NATO bombardment of Serbia, argued that displacement and genocide could not be tolerated on European soil. At the same time it was “Europe” that intervened in the name of human rights in the region that was therefore precisely conceptualized as outside.