Operation Allied Force-
A critical discourse analysis of how Serbian newspapers reported the NATO intervention in the Kosovo conflict.
Word count: 11504
Stockholm University
The Department of Political Science Independent Research Project
Political Science III Spring term 2019 Melisa Purić
ABSTRACT
Kofi Annan- a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, posed a question on moral and ethics in the international society, “...if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica – to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?”. Upon answering this question of moral obligation, one must first turn to the self. The purpose of this study is thus by using the case study of NATO interventions in Serbia, find understanding of the construct of national identity in relation to foreign affairs affecting domestic stature and the stance against the domestic nations action.
By using the method of critical discourse analysis within the post-structuralist theory, three main discursive positions, tensions and struggles have been identified that the NATO-bombings have given rise to in the Serbian context. It is studied how these discursive framings are depicted in Serbian newspapers, and discussed in relation to national self.
1. INTRODUCTION p.3
1.1 Specification of the problem p. 4
1.2 Purpose & Research question p. 4
1.3 Approach and perspective p. 5
1.4 Delimitations p. 6
1.5 Margin of error p. 6
2. METHOD p. 7
2.1 Choice of method p. 7
2.2 Scientific starting point p. 8
2.2.1 Nodal points p.10
2.2.2 Equivalence chains p.10
2.2.3 Floating signifiers and antagonism p.10
2.3 Illustrated variables p.11
2.4 Qualitative research Analysis (CAQDAS) p.13
2.5 Alternative methods and further research p. 14
2.6 Critical review of the method p. 15
3. MATERIAL p. 16
3.1 Article selection p. 17
4. PREVIOUS RESEARCH & CONSTRUCT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY p. 18
5. ANALYSIS CAQDAS - ATLAS.ti interpretation p. 22
5.1 Nodal points and Chains of equivalence p. 25
6. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION p. 31
1. INTRODUCTION
“Do you know up to what point you can know?”, once asked the French writer Michel Foucault (1997). His question encapsulates the essence of post-structuralism.
This is a study of the NATO bombings of Serbia, seen from a post-structuralist critical discourse perspective. The NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999 was codenamed Operation Allied Force or, by the United States, Operation Noble Anvil and was NATO's military operation against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War (Bonnen, P. 2003).
The conflict had been going on since the early 1990s, when Slobodan Milošević, the then Yugoslav president, restricted Kosovo's autonomy, which the province has had since 1974. Milošević pursued a kind of austerity policy that was partly based on the fact that ever since Tito disappeared there has been increased decentralization in Yugoslavia. The president's policies were also characterized by strong Serbian nationalism. The Kosovo Albanians protested and proclaimed the independent Republic of Kosovo, which, however, was only recognized by neighboring Albania and refused to cooperate with the authorities. As a result of discrimination and exclusion, the Kosovars had devised parallel social systems to live a more tolerable life. Schools, health centers and other non-profit institutions were run without Yugoslav control. Milošević responded with the dismissal of all Kosovo Albanians to positions of power both nationally and regionally. Persecution and other harassment also occurred, leading to violence between Serbian military and ethnic Albanian residents of Kosovo in the mid-1990s (NATO,int).
On March 24, NATO began bombing Yugoslavia on the grounds of preventing ethnic cleansing with the support of all NATO countries. NATO set five goals with the operation.
1. Immediate stop of all violence and oppression in Kosovo. 2. The withdrawal of all Serbian forces from Kosovo. 3. Addition of an international military force in Kosovo. 4. All refugees would be allowed to return to their homes.
1.1 Specification of the problem
This study seeks to fill the void between our understanding of the political phenomenon of constructed national identity and its role in supporting or disapproving the actions of the domestic state.
To reach knowledge in how NATO, the West and the own national “self”- both in regards of population and nation- are depicted in Serbian news media, certain discursive framings towards NATO, the West, etc. in Serbian news media are being studied. This seeks to provide deeper meaning of how internal administration and policy with reference to foreign affairs is being affected by national identity.
1.2 Purpose & Research question
The purpose of this study is to attain knowledge on how the construct of national identity in relation to foreign affairs affects the stance against the domestic nations action, this by using the case study of NATO interventions in Serbia.
The scientific value of such finding would lay in better understanding for an utterly contemporary issue, with populistic and nationalistic winds not only blowing throughout Europe- but the entire international society. Implementing understanding of the phenomena of constructed identity in relation to nationalism could further the understanding amongst nations and for executed policies. Furthermore, the study fills a void in political sciences in regards of the material studied being originally in Serbian, providing deeper insight of the discourse surrounding the conflict as the material produced is directly derived from the region in question.
The chosen channel of analysis is daily tabloids and national newspapers, due to its partially national coverage as well as the variation between the newspapers positions. The research question thus states as follows; What kind of discursive positions, tensions and struggles does the NATO-bombing give rise to in the Serbian context, and how are these discursive framings depicted in Serbian newspapers?
1.3 Approach and perspective
The theoretical starting point is based on the fact that reality is shaped by the reflection of social practices that are all discursively determined, and it is not intended to show any underlying reality, but the reality as such that is made up of discourses. Fairclough (1995) has two definitions of discourse that constitute the complete definition of the discourse concept. One of these is of a more abstract character, which says “use of language as social practice" while the other says "As a way of speaking that asserts meaning to experiences from an outside definite perspective”(Winther, J. and Phillips. 2000).
A discourse, which also involves a social practice, and its relation to other social dimensions is dialectic. That means that the discourse, meaning social practice, reflects social processes and structures as much as it is about shaping and transforming these. The relation between texts and society and culture is dialectical in the sense that texts included in the mass media discourse are sociocultural, while at the same time constituting the society and cultural conditions, in ways that may be either transformative or reproductive. In critical discourse analysis, there is always an ideological element, also called ideological effects. This means that the discursive practices are about reproducing and creating unequal power relations among ethnic minorities and majorities, women and men and classes. A particularly important component when applying critical discourse analysis on a text is that clarify power relations as the main purpose of this method is to make unequal visible power relations within different domains for the benefit of the oppressed (Fairclough, N. 1995).
However, since different discourses of one and the same phenomenon can exist, there is not only one discourse attached to one subject. Therefore, for example the discourse "immigrants can enrich the existing culture” can be a model of society it exists in (Hansen and Machin, 2013: 117). Any one individual text can consist of several different topics and discourses, and it is only when several discourses relate to the same subject as patterns can be identified (Wodak and Meyer, 2009). Even differences and relationships between what is expressed can contribute to a deeper understanding of how these themes are constructed and how they relate to each other (Gibson and Brown, 2009).
1.4 Delimitations
The most predominant delimitations have been made in the choice of one single conflict as basis for the case study. The case in question was chosen due to its complex history and the importance national identity bears within it, as well as the many questions that arose with the aftermath of the conflict and the several new policies that it led to. The study is thus limited to the construction of one single national identity, reason being to choosing one case study is partially the broath of the case but also the need of keeping it narrow enough to be able to carry out an extensive analysis.
The material was limited to of reviews of previous research and theories by important thinkers in both the area of political science but primarily of post-structuralism and international relations. This is due to the relevance of these theories. The written or spoken material, though due to the study being a critical discourse analysis there is no extensive amount of such material, comes primarily from first hand sources being the selected articles from the selected newspapers. The articles comment the course of the conflict as well as the discursive meaning of it, and is limited to mostly focusing on a post-structuralist aspect. Moreover, newspapers that were studied were six major Serbian newspapers; in the search of reflecting the discourse of the context. This is because these were estimated to be sufficient coverage during an enough timespan of the events.
1.5 Margin of error
The margin of error in the use of critical discourse analysis and while generally studying discourses lays within the researchers involvement in the creation of the context that the different words, signs and practices are articulated in and acquire meaning from. Identity for example, which is one of the major topics in this study, may be relational put in the perspective it is approached from. It is therefore vital that the consumers of this study keep in mind the critique against the researcher as a neutral observer of reality.
It might be troubling for the researcher to distance him- or herself from the study and from the material, due to the fact that it most frequently is the own culture that is being researched on. This can lead to the exact certainties that the researcher wants to bring forth may be left
unresearched, because they are seen as too close to the subject in order to be viewed as discourses (Winther, J. and Phillips, 2000).
2. METHOD
2.1 Choice of method
The approach that is adopted to this research paper is the concept of post-structuralism, suggesting that one may understand the means of human nature by structure, expressed by structural linguistics that connects the abstract reality and concrete ideas (Deleuze, G. 2002). Within the method of post-structuralism, critical discourse theory is applied and thus is the chosen approach for this paper. In social sciences, discourse analysis is often used to explain how language and text can organize social reality and can be seen as a broadening of textual analysis. (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 307).
A Foucauldian aim of discourse focuses more on exclusion mechanisms within the discourse, in this paper the Foucauldian concepts within the method have been chosen, in reference to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This orientation within discourse analysis is more focused on political processes and changes, and is thus deemed suitable for this study (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 319).
By analyzing discourses using critical discourse theory as an interdisciplinary approach this research paper will scrutinize six national newspapers, focusing on the creation of identity, a constitutive outside and its linking to what kind of positions, tensions and struggles the NATO-bombings gave rise to in the Serbian context (Jörgensen, W. et al,. 2000). As mentioned in [section 3.2], one of the scientific starting points is that social practice and linguistic practice establish and create one another, and therefore the aim of the investigation is to analyze how societal power relations are constituted and how they are reinforced through language (Fairclough, N. 1995).
Thus, in accordance with critical discourse theory, the study will be further strengthened and validated by applying quantitative data analysis to distinguish signifiers, elements and chains of equivalence (Bryman, A. 2016).
The construction of national identity seen as from a linguistic discourse analysis perspective is structured as well as being unstable, and Laclau and Mouffe (1985) argue that discourses aim to fix meaning around structures that are enclosed, however “neither absolute fixity nor absolute non-fixity is possible” (Laclau and Mouffe 1985:111).
2.2 Scientific starting point
In the field of post-structuralism, language is ontologically important because it is through linguistics that nations, states, objects, beings and material things are given meaning. Language is seen as social practice, and in objects having their meaning asserted there is no true meaning beyond the one that the linguistic representation refers to, a belief that is in contrast with positivist, empiricist science (Shapiro, MJ. 1981:218).
According to Derrida (1976) language is an alignment of different systemized signs whose meaning is established not by the character itself but in accordance in and relation to a series of elements that are valued over their contradictory meaning. As previously mentioned, the construction of a national identity the “self” is solemnly made possible by the delineation that is not “us” (Campbell 1992; Neumann 1996).
This study will spring from Laclau and Mouffe's approach to discourse theory, meaning that the social world is constructed after the discourse and the discourse is changing. A relevant concept for Laclau and Mouffe's theory is "discursive struggle" (Winther, J. and Phillips 2000: 13), which can be interpreted in the sense that language is fundamentally unstable and that discourses are constantly changing. Laclau and Mouffe believe that all actions and social practices are included in the discourse, which also includes material aspects. Winther and Phillips describe Laclau and Mouffe's theory by saying: "discourse is constitutive" (2000: 26) the discourse is thus not a reflection of reality. Laclau and Mouffe use several different concepts to describe discourses. The following instruments of analysis will be adopted:
• Nodal point
• Floating and empty signifiers • Equivalence chains
In regards of this research paper being a qualitative study with several underlying scientific assumptions behind it, one must take in account that the appliance of critical discourse theory as an interdisciplinary approach to the use of discourse means several things. Primarily the view of language as a social practice, where non-linguistic social practice in combination with linguistic practice create partially one another, but also power relations.
Critical discourse analysis, a part of critical theory assessing and critiquing society and culture, is derived from a direction in marxist theory and sees its role as mapping the role of discourses in maintaining uneven power relations (Fairclough, N. 1995). It therefore differs from traditional discourse analysis in its focus on uneven power distribution, exploitation, structural inequities in societal spheres such as education, working life et cetera (Blommaert, J.and Bucean, C. 2000).
Furthermore, the method of post-structuralism includes the assumption that policies are reliant on being representations of the polity, the threat, the country or the problem that they aim to undertake. Foreign policy needs to ascribe meaning to the particular case and to construct objects within it, and therefore articulating and extracting specific identities of other states, peoples, institutions et cetera and then putting these identities in a contrast to a national or institutional “self” or “us” (Wodak, R. 2001; van Dijk, Teun Adrianus, 1998).
In turn, the assumption that foreign policy is derived from representation of identity is drawn from a perception of identity as social, political and discursive. This means that representation of identity in foreign policy and within foreign policy issues bears an interpretative element that leads to foreign policy being drawn upon as an adequate response to these manners. “Constructed identity” being theorized through discourse and leaving policy dependent on this phenomena, indirectly argues that the existing identities are not objective and only exist in the realm of the policy. Thus, they cannot be used to contrast behaviour in any extra-discursive realm, leaving the fact that non-discursive factors can not be measured against identity as a variable. Identity as a conceptualization therefore only exists as long as it is rearticulated and not challenged by other competing discourses (Anderson, B. 1983).
In conceptualizing identity as discursive foreign policy articulates an “us” and “them”, or an “self” and “the others”, due to identity being partially political but mainly relational.
Traditionally, the domestic discourses in security constitute a national identity that confronts and challenges “the others” that pose a threat to “us” and their asserted identities are vigorously differing from the “self”. However, some scholars argue that identity does not have to be constructed in contrasting towards differences and threats with vigorous discrepancy (Campbell 1992). The construction of a constitutive outside and an identity may take on different stages of discrepancy and different stages of difference, stretching from indispensable differences to merely geographical differences. The “self” can be represented through geographical depiction, political depiction, racial depiction, gender depiction et cetera.
2.2.1 Nodal points
A nodal point is the point that is central and around which the discourse revolves (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 317 - 318). It can also be defined as a "privileged sign" and it is around these that concepts are arranged and have their meaning - positive or negative. A nodal point first becomes important in connection with other concepts (Winther, J. and Phillips 2000: 33).
The nodal points will fluctuate and thus the discourse and equivalence chains will also be modified and treated in different areas. This is an important instrument of analysis as the nodal point is the center of the discourse. By studying how and if the nodal points shift, we can form an idea of how the chosen concepts are reflected in the discourse.
2.2.2 Equivalence chain
Around nodal points, so-called equivalence chains are found, which associate the same concepts that have a positive or negative meaning to our nodal point (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 317). It is interpreted as the connection between the nodal point and its interconnected concept constituting the discourse. The characteristics of a concept that can be linked to another concept in a positive or negative way.
2.2.3 Floating signifiers and antagonism
Antagonism, is conflict on a linguistic level and social existence can be seen in terms of conflict (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 319). To clarify what Laclau and Mouffe mean by antagonism in their discourse analysis, they have introduced two terms "empty signifiers" and "floating signifiers", in this study only floating signifiers are deemed as necessary and will thus be
operationalized, meaning that the concept can have different meanings in different contexts and can therefore play a central role in several different discourses (Bergström and Boréus 2018: 316; Winther, Phillips 2000: 35).
2.3 Illustrated variables Appendix 1.
Variable denotation
Code description (signified) Signifiers
var101
var102
● 101 National Way of Life: Positive - comprised of:
● 101.1
General
Favourable mentions of the country’s nation, history, and general appeals. May include:
• Support for established national ideas; • General appeals to pride of citizenship; • Appeals to patriotism;
• Appeals to nationalism;
• Suspension of some freedoms in order to protect the state against subversion.
● 102 National Way of Life: Negative - comprised of:
● 102.1
General
Unfavourable mentions of the country’s nation and history. May include:
• Opposition to patriotism; • Opposition to nationalism;
• Opposition to the existing national state, national pride, and national ideas.
● nation ● pride ● patriot ● people ● state ● land ● freedom ● courage ● humanitarian var103 ● 103 Anti-institutionalism
Negative references to institutionalist behaviour and/or negative references to one state exerting strong influence
● de-colonisation
● empire
● control
● self-government
(political, military or commercial) over other states. May also include:
• Negative references to controlling other countries as if they were part of an empire;
• Favourable references to greater self-government and independence for colonies;
• Favourable mentions of de-colonisation.
● free ● bureaucracies var104 var105 ● 104 Military: Positive
The importance of external security and defence. May include statements concerning:
• The need to maintain or increase military expenditure; • The need to secure adequate manpower in the military; • The need to modernise armed forces and improve military strength;
• The need for rearmament and self-defence; • The need to keep military treaty obligations. ● 105
Military: Negative
Negative references to the military or use of military power to solve conflicts. References to the ‘evils of war’. May include references to:
• Decreasing military expenditures; • Disarmament;
• Reduced or abolished conscription.
● enemy ● force ● nonviolence ● passivity ● surrender ● disarmament ● hostility ● protection ● strong ● aggressive ● post-war reconstruction ● war var106 ● 106 Peace
Any declaration of belief in peace and peaceful means of solving crises -- absent reference to the military. May include:
• Peace as a general goal;
• Desirability of countries joining in negotiations with
● peace ● negotiation ● pacifism ● accord ● reconciliation ● truce ● unity
The scope of variables that has been applied was estimated to be appropriate due their capability of illustrating and encapsulating the concepts that are sought to outline the discourse. A code scheme was then constructed and variables were retrieved from the manifesto database, which is beneficial due to the wide range of existing international projects in a common effort to code several variables. See Appendix 1 for the full variable description.
2.4 Qualitative research Analysis (CAQDAS)
To analyze something is to identify and study its components. Bergström and Boréus (2018) present some text analytic approaches, such as content analysis, conceptual history, linguistic text analysis and discourse analysis. The intention of this study is to be influenced by two of these approaches with regard to the nature of the documents, namely qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis.
What is being sought is what is explicitly expressed, but the search can also be used to access what is not fully stated (Bergström and Boréus, 2018). Primarily a problem was formulated, which can be illustrated with the help of content analysis. The material is collected at the earliest stage possible, then the material is sorted into smaller quantities to be examined. The material is determined based on the purpose and then constructs "analytical instruments" that mark what is to be examined in the material (ibid). In this study, the occurrence of listed nodal points and their chains of equivalence were of interest. Furthermore, the code scheme speaks in detail about which notes to make in the analyzed text.
The process of developing the coding instructions is done by several reviews of the text mass. Documents that are being reviewed are called analysis units, what is counted are called coding units. Issues from the purpose can be related to the frequencies and relationships between the coding units can be studied.
hostile countries;
The qualitative data analysis was conducted in the ATLAS.ti- a computer program used mostly, but not exclusively, in qualitative research or qualitative data analysis. There the tool Word Cruncher was used to determine frequency and procentual occurrence. A summary of the content analysis is provided in Appendix 2.
2.5 Alternative methods and further research
Other alternative methods that suggestively could be applied to examine the domestic attitudes towards the nation state in wars and crisis, specifically if there is a discursive struggle in Serbia between different newspapers and different attitudes towards the actions against Kosovo would be foreign policy analysis (FPA). This is a study of how states or the people that lead them plan, execute and react foreign policy in the domestic state as well as foreign policy in the international society (Philip B.K. Potter, 2010).
The subfield of FPA includes several levels of analysis and a broth of research questions, with different methodological approaches. There are four main methods that are central in the study of FPA; archival research, content analysis, interviews, and focus groups (Philip B.K. Potter, 2010).
For further research, one might explore the notion on communism being beneficial and the better alternative of ruling for some states, if the statement is true that communism suppressed the barbaric “true” identity, based on the fact that the dominant and deep roots of the Balkan made the war almost to be expected. The peaceful situation that was during the leading of Tito, where the co-existence of the different nationalities in Yugoslavia was harmonious, was rather seen as an anomaly and differed from the “standard Balkan behaviour”. Some might argue that the communist state on nation side of the border with Europe on the other side neglected and contained the real Balkan identity and that the collapse of communism therefore led to the outburst of the previously concealed brutalities, held in schack by the communistic ideas and ideologies of Yugoslavian brotherhood and solidarity (Bush, G.H.W 1992).
3.6 Critical review of the method
Some scholars, such as Howarth (2013) argue that the critique against post-structuralism as a method is wide;
Poststructuralist philosophy has attracted considerable critique from many perspectives. Rationalists, neo-conservatives, liberals, Marxists, critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, proponents of hermeneutics, structuration theory, and critical theory, and even some Lacanians have raised serious objections about different aspects of its ontology and its substantive concepts and logics. One line of criticism has focussed on the difficulties of developing and translating its abstract concepts and logics into a viable social and political theory. (Howarth D.R. 2013:56)
Furthermore, the study of discourse analysis within post-structuralism has a interdisciplinary nature, which leads it to being used within several different disciplines, which according to scholars such as Bergström and Boréus (2018) is a problem, due to the fact that different researchers or subject representatives mean different things when referring to the theory. Another problem in using discourse analysis is that it might be troubling for the researcher to distance him- or herself from the study and from the material, due to the fact that it most frequently is the own culture that is being researched on. This can lead to the exact certainties that the researcher wants to bring forth may be left unresearched, because they are seen as too close to the subject in order to be viewed as discourses (Winther, J. and Phillips, 2000).
In this context, reflexivity is an often used term according to Burr (2003). She argues that reflexivity has several different meanings, amongst others to highlight the fact that when a person accounts for a sequence of events it is simultaneously a description of and a part of the sequence of events being accounted for, due to the narrative nature of the account. The consequence can be that the role of the researcher is undermined when the inherent study can not be held as the only truth (Burr, 2003). With this in the background, Winter Jørgensen and Phillips (2000) mean to that it is problematic that as a researcher be able to motivate the own version as better than any other version, and according to Burr (2003) the researcher is in a position of power in relation to the audience since the truth of the researcher often weighs heavier than the one of the “ordinary citizen”.
The post-structuralist belief is that language is the most important element in the sought to explain the social world, and inspiration is drawn from Nietzsche who, as cited in Bleiker and Chou, argued that:
When we say something about the world we also inevitably say something about our conception of the world – something that is linked not to the facts and phenomena we try to comprehend but to the assumptions and conventions of knowing that we have acquired over time and that have become codified in language. (Bleiker, R. and Chou, M. 2010).
Since the world is seen as fundamentally textual, in researching the human experience of a text is to research the world itself. However, the narrative and discourse itself almost always encompasses the concept of power, and some scholars such as Thomassen (2017) argue that this is a concept that has become highly acclimated in everyday usage that we fail to experience it. The traditional concept when it comes to the understanding of power is the framework of top-down coercion (Sadan, E. 2004). This weakens the theory in itself, assuming that the statement made by Thomassen is accurate, and a parallel can be drawn directly to Bergström and Boréu’s statement that distancing oneself that of what one knows is troubling and hard, and waters down the reliability of the study.
In stating that existing identities are not objective and only exist in the realm of the policy [3.2], the question remains in whether identity has an inventive or causal effect on policy. For such an effect to occur, a causal relationship must be maintained and variables need to be identifies as dependent versus independent. But, since no identity, institution or polity is independent and is only created in relation to what it is not, and is produced and reproduced, there can be no variable of identity or policy existing prior to or independently of one another. This might be seen as problematic due to the difficulty of establishing a causal relationship and therefore a reliable research, however- if identities are produced through foreign policy discourse one might argue that policy causes identity.
3. MATERIAL
The material in this critical discourse analysis consists of reviews of six independent national newspapers in Serbia, which were during the NATO-bombings 1999 central for the Serbian
media outlets. While traditional discourse analysis tends to analyze texts and written or spoken language, Norman Fairclough as the creator of critical discourse analysis argues that the epistemological and methodological focus might as well be on the material objects which people “read” and interpret, rather than a focus on language itself (Fairclough, N. 2001). This study has in some extent used such an approach, as nations as political entities are highly verbal.
3.1 Article selection
The selection of articles stems from the period of the bombings earlier mentioned, namely march 1999- june 1999. However, a fifth month- july 1999- was added to the analysis to include the discursive stands towards the actions a short period after their official endings since it is estimated to incorporate crucial articles to define the discursive struggle. One article is selected per month from each newspaper. The newspapers were selected due to their activity during the selected period, as well as being central in the media sphere at the time. Following newspapers are included in the study;
Table 1.
B92 (Б92) Started in 1989, and has its headquarters in Belgrade. During Slobodan Milošević's days in power, the channel stood for independent journalism, and played western European-Anglo-Saxon rock music. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, it was broadcast over the Internet after the channel was silenced by the authorities.
VREME (Време) In 1990, dissatisfied with the media climate in SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia's largest constituent unit, a group of liberal Serbian intellectuals, including prominent lawyer Srđa Popović, decided to start a weekly newsmagazine. Vreme was launched with its first issue coming out on 29 October 1990,little over a month before the 1990 general
election in SR Serbia as the entire country of SFR Yugoslavia was transforming its governance from a one-party system under the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ) to a multi-party one. Most Vreme's original staff were journalists from Politika and NIN. It characterizes itself as "a magazine without lies, hatred, or prejudice" and has opposed nationalistic mobilization for the Yugoslav wars.
DANAS (данас) An independent daily newspaper of record published in Belgrade, Serbia. It is a left-oriented media, promoting social-democracy and European integrations. It is a vocal media supporter of Serbian NGO activities towards human rights and minorities protection The first issue of Danas appeared on 9 June 1997.
BORBA (Борба) A Serbian newspaper, formerly the official gazette of the Yugoslav Communist Party (KPJ). Its name is the Serbian word for 'struggle' or 'combat'. The very first issue of Borba was first published in Zagreb on 19 February 1922. Functioning as the banned Yugoslav Communist Party's propaganda piece, the paper played in important part in disseminating information among the party members, activists, and sympathizers.
The archives of these newspapers were retrieved from several different outlets. B92, VREME and DANAS had accessible online archives, where following keywords were applied to delimit the scope of articles; NATO, Bombings, war, intervention, USA, happenings 99, milosevic . 1
The articles that were not accessible through online archives presented by the newspaper in question were instead sought for through national archives such as KoBSON, National library of Serbia databases, Newsbank and EBSCO. The selection was there as well narrowed to the period of March 1999-July 1999 and matching keywords were used.
Concerning selection criteria of the articles, besides the matching of the keywords in the data-bases above mentioned, these six newspapers were selected and deemed sufficient in a selection of ten national daily newspapers, distributing approximately 4,000 copies per publication. The nature of the articles ranges from editorial, to news article, to opinion pieces. This because it was estimated to still express the discourse sought for, independently of where in the newspaper the piece is located.
4. PREVIOUS RESEARCH & CONSTRUCT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY
One of the main focuses of the ontology and epistemology of post-structuralist discourse theory is the concept of identity, and as previously discussed identity is produced through and dependent of foreign policy, its existence is relational and discursive. Thinkers, such as David Campbell (1992) argue that the discourse of national security creates an inside and outside, meaning that a
1 The keywords were as well applied in Serbian; НАТО, Бомбардовање, рат, интервенција, САД, догађаји 99, милошевић
BLIC (Блиц) A daily middle-market tabloid newspaper in Serbia. Founded in 1996, by a group of Austria-based businessmen, who had drawn some journalists who had previously been working for Borba and Nasa Borba. At the time of his investment in Blic, Lupšić had strong ties to Milošević's wife Mira Marković and her party Yugoslav Left (JUL).
POLITIKA (Политика)
A Serbian daily published in Belgrade with interruptions since 1904 and considered the oldest newspaper in the former Yugoslavia. Throughout its long history, which in the first decades was owned by the Ribnikar family, Politika has gained a great reputation and reputation as an authority newspaper. He has been trying to restore that reputation in recent years after a period of controversy related to the breakup of Yugoslavia.
discrepancy is being established between the national community and the international anarchy. Further he argues that it is a crucial part of the construction identity of the state to construct a radical “other”, and therefore there is a need within the ontology of national identity to convert ideas of difference into the constructed identity of the “other” (Campbell, D. 1992). Constructions of this nature are often used in a legitimizing manner, where security policies are legitimized after the construction of “capitalists”, “homosexuals”, “states” or “terrorists” that are threatening the social life, infrastructure or domestic security of the national “self” (Connolly,W.E. 1991).
By identifying signifiers such as “ruthless”, “mad”, “barbaric” et cetera and the “self” such as “merciful”, “intelligent” and “civilized” one establishes the methodology, however the importance lays within placing these signifiers into a larger template. The construction of the Balkan identity for example, and therefore Serb identity, being placed in contrast to Europe only takes it significance when placed within a larger discourse that creates links and discrepancies between the signs. This meaning the linking of “The Balkans” to “the violent”, “the primite”, “communist”, “ferocious”, “aberrant”, “atrocious”, “impoverished” and putting it in contrast to a “mannered”, “developed”, “civilized”, “coordinated” and “reasonable” Europe (Todorova, M. 1997).
Furthermore, some discourses may become grounded to the point that a detailed construction of the identity of the subject might be redundant as they are articulated through foreign policy debate and outlets such as media agendas. When the disorder and disturbances began in Yugoslavia, they were constructed as the “Balkans” frequently, a social construct that was reinforced by the media and public statements. In the development of the war, the constructed identity of the Balkan became set and made it unnecessary to elaborate on what signs that were linked to Balkans, because the receiver already subconsciously drew parallels to the signifiers for the Balkans (Connolly,W.E. 1991).
Signifiers such as these included the construction of a certain “Balkan masculinity” that was seen as dominant, encompassing “alpha male” traits being threatening, intrusive and bold. A construction like this does not only create a divide between the Balkans and the “others”, but also creates a domestic divide between the Balkan masculinity and the Balkan femininity; a gendered discrepancy is being constituted between the Balkan destitute females and the contentious Balkan
males. The women were therefore from a Western discourse perspective seen as victimized and maltreated and thus in need of Western safety and influence of a Western feminism (Todorova, M. 1997). The result of construction and discourses like these were not only a divide between the international community and Balkan, but also diminishing the idea of a homogeneous Balkan identity and therefore also a domestic divide within the Balkan states. This in turn led to an abolition of Western duty and moral responsibility in intervening in the war, because of the destabilized Balkan identity and the gendering of the Balkans.
Furthermore, the idea of temporal displacement, meaning that the Balkan discourse is constituted as not being able to change the course of its backward identity. It is permanent in its being of backwards development and established primitiveness, violence and underdevelopment. The possibility of progressing in its development is constructed as moving towards Western ideas and ideologies, and progressing towards a Western state of being is a central discourse when it comes to development, democratization and the furthering of human rights discourses. The West is an object to be mirrored and followed in the pursuit of development and accomplishment which further proves the difference between the identity of the “undeveloped” Balkans striving to be as the “developed, civilized West” is while being cemented in their constituted backward identity (Todorova, M. 1997).
In addition, some scholars argue that there are three different discourses constituting the Balkans. The one laid out above being a Balkanization discourse that constitutes the Balkans as barbaric, unable to change, develop or transform and as a threat of chaos, war and destruction to the West. Seen from this perspective, the Balkans are vigorously different from the “self” and should thus be treated with alienation and desolement rather than intervention and support (Said, E.W. 1978). The second one is the “Byronian Romanticism” that constitutes the Balkans as an object of delight and adoration, a romantic difference from the West that should not strive for transformation because of the existent beauty of the object, but rather should be supported by the West for safekeeping and independence. The third and last one being an “Enlightenment discourse” as a civilization that should be enlightened by the West and influenced with its economic, civil and political strategies. In this perspective, the West holds a moral burden and importance as well as geographical and financial benefit in being involved (Said, E.W. 1978; Todorova, M. 1997).
The Serbs were initially, and not for a long time, not seen as responsible for the implementation of attempting to annihilate a people or for genocide (Cohen, R. 1993). The conflict was rather seen as one of territory, and the Serbian interest was seen as anyone else's due to the previously mentioned assimilation (Doder, D. 1993). Discourses like these, and the idea of Bosnia being solemnly a territory where different sides of the same coin, a “Balkan identity”, were in conflict. This idea left the West resigning from any ethical or moral responsibility, because all of the sides were seen as equal in the conflict that was seen as stemming from ancient roots. The responsibility was placed upon the parties within the discourse of the identity instead, and an establishment of peace against their will was not seen as possible. This left solemnly the Bosnians responsible for the actions by the Bosnian Serbs or the Serbs, and vice versa- while the West was left out of it.
Furthermore, while having the discourse of the Balkan identity and the assimilation of the Balkan people as a legitimate reason for passivity on one hand, on the other the responsibility for the own state was used to resign from responsibility towards the war in Bosnia. A classical national discourse was articulated and political leaders justified pacification by prioritizing the own state, armed forces and people. An example of this is a statement by Senator McCain:
our first obligation is to the young men and women who serve in our military who are the ones who will be sent into this quagmire. We must not use them in political or military experiments. We must not risk them unless our military experts are fully convinced that our actions will succeed (McCain S12041, 102nd Congress, August 10, 1992).
One might interpret this as the choice was made not due to a disinterest for the Bosnians, but rather for a interest in preserving the domestic parties.
However, with the rise of the articulation of “genocide”- it did not only implicate legal action towards the executor, but also created an ethical responsibility towards the inflicted subjects and their suffering and an assemblage of their anguish. This discourse is strengthened by the historical aspect of genocides such as Auschwitz or Rwanda which reinforces the notion of ethical responsibility. National security discourse is dependent on the notion of ethical, spatial-
which concerns the use of place names, reference to physical land, country or borders and other forms of lexical units that construct a cognitive perception of a divided or limited physical world- and temporal categorization, where the nation is vigorously different from the international society and its anarchy. Within the realm of the nation progress can spread and prosper while being postponed on the outside of the nation, leaving the responsibility solemnly between the government and its people while international responsibility is at most secondary, but primarily has the capability of being perilous (Walker 1993; Der Derian 1987).
A norm of the “Responsibility to Protect” was borne out of the failure to respond to tragedies such as the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 and the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. In the late 1990s NATO intervened in Kosovo without Security Council authorisation, though having wide support for moral legitimacy (Ambos, Kai. 1999). This event brought the debate on humanitarian intervention to surface, questioning international law and the threshold for intervention. The term “responsibility to protect” has become common in international discourse when it comes to sovereignty and intervention and has on the latter been incorporated into important international documents, amongst others and most notably the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document.
5. ANALYSIS- CAQDAS - ATLAS.ti interpretation Appendix 2.
As observed in Appendix 2, the most commonly occuring nodal point was the concept of “war”, which appeared 179 times and accounted for approximately 31,2% of the written words in the units of analysis. The second most commonly occuring nodal point was the concept of “people, which appeared 117 times and accounted for approximately 20% of the written words in the units of analysis. Due to the nature of the material being selected in regards to concerning the analysed NATO-bombings, these findings indeed support the existence of chains of equivalence and thus show promising findings, also involving concepts of “aggression”, “force”, “humanitarian”, “state” and “peace” as frequently occuring.
By solemnly studying the presence of the above selected nodal points, and thus not in relation to chains of equivalence, one might notice the concept of “surrender” and “disarmament” only occurring once throughout the material, which can be put in contrast to “aggression” and “force” being mentioned up to 38 times. Upon returning to the illustrated variables in appendix 1, this frequent occurrence shows a strong positive support for ‘national military’, especially considering the contexts these nodal points are found within, indicating the importance of external and internal security and defence. Statements concerning the need to maintain or increase military expenditure, the need to secure adequate manpower in the military, the need to modernise armed forces and improve military strength, the need for rearmament and self-defence and the need to keep military treaty obligations are thus included in this idea. Put in relation to the NATO-bombings and intervention shows a support for the national self, and thus rejects the intervention no matter the aims of the intervention, this is stated in the following passage;
From a military standpoint, this bombing campaign again demonstrated the lethal capabilities of the US war machine. Its weapons makers congratulate each other and rub their hands in anticipation of the torrent of revenue that will come from their orders when the Pentagon reloads its arsenal of weapons. But Serbia's capitulation is a victory that the US will pay too much. The US has achieved its short-term goals in the Balkans, but at a huge long-term political cost./.../ Disarmament is not an option, Serbia must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed by credible military forces, the ability to choose to use those forces, and the willingness to do so, to respond to international crises (BORBA, July 99).
The nodal point of “humanitarian” is mentioned several times, and often in relation to favourable mentions of the country’s nation, history, and general appeals. The statements include support for established national ideas, general appeals to pride of citizenship, appeals to patriotism, appeals to nationalism and suspension of some freedoms in order to protect the state against subversion.
What do we do in the circumstances of a situation which, according to me, before March 24, could be described as a severe case of human rights abuses but not a humanitarian crisis, and certainly not a genocide. The humanitarian disaster was provoked as a response and, at the same time, is the side effect of the actions of NATO (DANAS, June 99).
This is further strengthened in the relation to the concept of “state”, also often mentioned. It relates to previously mentioned General Support for established national ideas and appeals to pride of citizenship;
We are a proud people in a proud nation, Of course, some freedoms must be sacrificed in order to obtain others, and the country that is ready to do so fully is the country that will take the furthest from that lesson. We have lived this way from ancient times and the western display of power is not about moral imperatives about what is right or wrong, but about who wins and who loses (VREME, April 99).
There is as well a strand of anti-institutionalism found throughout the material. Negative references to imperial behaviour and/or negative references to one state exerting strong influence, whether it be political, military or commercial over other states. Negative references to controlling other countries as if they were part of an empire and favourable references to greater self-government and independence for colonies were found and occured as nodal points in appendix 2. The attitude towards bureaucracies is described as abortive, foolish and incapable of reason;
From the beginning, international bureaucracies such as the UN, EU and NATO and the great powers have shown an unmistakable talent for making the wrong decisions at the wrong time. Such behavior, unfortunately, is inherent in the nature of human institutions of all kinds and is not a privilege of the great. In an inspired and well-documented book entitled The History of Soldier Stupidity, an American psychiatrist cites a terrifying series of defeats, senseless deaths
and unnecessary destruction for which there is no other explanation than ordinary, simple, human stupidity (POLITIKA, May 99).
5.1 Nodal points and Chains of equivalence
The positions, tensions and discursive struggles of the domestic occurrences in Serbia during the NATO bombings are in this study expressed by finding nodal points, their flowing signifiers and the chains of equivalence that follow and are presented below.
The nodal points found in the empirical material, derived from the signifiers in appendix 2 (presented in section 7.), were substantially “people”, “nation”, “war”, “peace” and
“aggression”. Starting with a view on morality and attribution, presented by Nenad Dimitrijevic for B92 in May 1999;
Yugoslavia today is a place of suffering. The country has become a stage on which two contestants are battling for moral victory. The stage is miserable and the contestants, the Western military alliance and the Milosevic regime, look like third-rate amateurs. But the price of winning the prize on offer is extremely high, the killing of innocents, the expulsion of other innocents and the destruction of the country. Milosevic happily uses the most ruthless methods against Albanian civilians in Kosovo, invoking our moral right to defend the country from aggression. Nato claims the same right from the other side of the table, the moral duty to protect the innocent Albanian population of Yugoslavia. This in turn the moral right to bomb the innocent non-Albanian population of Yugoslavia. But this extravagance of moral
imperatives serves only to conceal a clash between two radical evils, neither of which draw the line at the physical destruction of people and their homes. These masters of death have divided the population ideologically and militarily into two groups, "Albanians" and "Serbs", creating in both a feeling of helplessness, fear and desperation, attempting to turn both into permanent victims burdened with hate for the other side. Thus was created another hellish spiral of defeat and revenge - we know from our recent past how the imposed feeling of having been wronged in the post has the potential of great destructiveness for the future (B92, May. 1999).
The chain of equivalence surrounding the nodal point of moral, moral right and moral duty in this example presents the construction of the people as pinched between the right of serbian self preservation and and the NATO humanitarian commitments. One might argue that even
though the discourse clearly does take a stance against the civilian losses, it does not take part of supporting the domestic state, as the other side, either- but rather create a separation of the people and the nations and institutions. In expressing “But this extravagance of moral imperatives serves only to conceal a clash between two radical evils, neither of which draw the line at the physical destruction of people and their homes.”, the nodal point of “people” is being attached to the floating signifiers of “innocent”, “helpless” and “desperate” finding themselves between “two evils”.
However, a contrasting discourse, where the nation is not seen as either of two evil but rather a victim of Western display of power is presented;
What has just finished has probably been the most bizarre military intervention in history. The way it was conducted, its aims, moral justifications and the outcome, in which all sides claim to have won ensure that. /.../ In terms of the general balance of power, the air strikes on Serbia were for Nato nothing more than a large fashion parade of modern weaponry and equipment and were certainly less risk than some complex exercises. /.../ This is still not the end of the Serb misery. Many Serbian writers and intellectuals, even ten years ago, were wallowing in descriptions of Serbian national tragedy. These became the platform of the Milosevic war policy and created an image of a people which mourned for itself and attacked others, burning other peoples' villages and conquering territory. Such self-victimisation was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Serbs have finally, as a people, as a whole, become tragic victims (BLIC, June. 1999).
Here the nodal point of people stays more or less the same, the flowing signifiers are
“mourning”, “tragic victims”, while the state is being assigned attributed such as “in misery”, “assigned guilt” and a “target”. The difference lays in the victimization of Serbia rather than its wrongdoing in Kosovo and the earlier Balkan wars, and the West and NATO are being portrayed by flowing signifiers such as “uncompassionate” not seeking to end ethnic cleansing or having humanitarian motives, but rather wanting to perform a “/.../ fashion parade of modern weaponry and equipment”. The above passage continues with;
Having wept over their fate in advance, no one believes them now and no one feels any need to be compassionate, even when they are fleeing Kosovo en masse and are subject to Albanian
reprisals. The impression of the collective Serbian guilt has been multiplied during the Nato intervention as the media built support for the air campaign. Images of the Albanian refugee disaster and stories of atrocities in Kosovo were covered in such a way as to create an image of Serbs as natural born killers. In the beginning, the Nato spokesman occasionally apologised for collateral damage, but as time went on everything in Serbia simply became a legitimate target (BLIC, June. 1999).
The Serbian guilt is here reduced to an impression and not to be seen as de-facto guilt, there is an image of “the guilty Serb”, and it is deemed that images from refugee camps were used to frame Serbs as natural born killers. This further suggests the victimization of Serbia, renouncing the actions towards the Kosovo-albans as performed by neither the Serbs or Serbia, but as a Western conspiracy to direct guilt towards the nation, and for NATO support during the “air campaign”.
The intervention is thus characterized as mercenary, NATO as the antagonist, and the Serbian nation and people as victims and “fleeing Kosovo en masse and are subject to Albanian reprisals”. This is a discourse that, in difference to the previous example, does not separate either the guilt or the victimization of the serbian people and the actions of the state. One might consider nationalistic tendencies as a reason for the strong belief in the legitimacy of the state.This discourse is further strengthened by;
If staying with the principle of sovereignty, one would have had to stand aside and not act for fear of upsetting an extremely precarious balance and producing a destabilizing, and possibly, a domino effect. How can the sovereignty of Bosnia be upheld if the one of Yugoslavia is abused? If the principle of sovereignty is abused, this is a dangerous message for all secessionist movements who can hold governments hostage./.../In the meantime, there was never a Balkan war in the 1990s. Neither Greece, nor Bulgaria, Albania, Romania or Turkey have been at war despite the constant insinuations in the Western press. All of them have been careful to avoid any temptation to get involved (POLITIKA, July. 1999).
Here, the argument of establishing a norm of interventionism and the breach of sovereignty is used. The example of 19 nations against one Balkan country, and the frightening
conclusions in the West wanting solemnly to parade their power and how the Serbs fall victims for this show. The actions of the West are portrayed as risking the entire structure of the international society in setting aside the principle of sovereignty, and “producing a destabilizing, and possibly, a domino effect”.
Furthermore, the previous Balkan wars are depicted as in fact not having been wars at all despite “the constant insinuations in the Western press”, painting a picture of a peaceful and content region until the West came and disrupted the peace. Furthermore, West is portrayed as being guilty of unproportional violence and assault toward Serbia, as the author states that there are numerous states aligned in an aggression against one single state;
The war in the 1990s was a war for the Yugoslav succession. But now let us be very clear. It is no longer a Yugoslav war. There is now an undeclared European, no, a world war, of 19 nations against one Balkan country, and this has enormous and frightening implications not only for the region but for the world. “(POLITIKA, July. 1999).
Another position, still where NATO in the discourse bears the signifiers of “dangerous” and “mercenary”, the discourse surrounding the nodal point of “people” shifts from “victims”, “helpless” and “desperate” to being ordinary citizens with high combat moral, suggesting the signifiers “strength” and “bravery”;
Despite perhaps the most serious NATO threats to our country in Belgrade, the conversation with ordinary citizens gives the impression that the combat morale is at a high level because, as one salesman at Kalenic Market says, "this has to be solved in some way, we are ready.(DANAS, 1999).
The position of the discourse is here shifts to still putting blame on the West and NATO, however not victimizing Serbia and thus upholding the previously mentioned Balkan masculinity and identity of being strong and uncompromising. Furthermore, the discourse of condemning the West and dismissing Serbian responsibility in wars is attached to Western ideas of exclusion of the Serbs;
The West has always systematically bypassed serious conversation with the Serbian alternative, forever treating it as a sort of peculiar handy decor in an otherwise perfectly monochrome space. There's no point in asking ourselves what might have been if Western politicians had then, or at any other point in our permanent crisis, called a serious meeting with those who make up the present-day Serbian politico-intellectual think tank, a meeting which would be convened on an equal footing. Or if they had broached a dialogue with a series of other negotiators, even without dropping their favourite. If they had at least strayed a few inches from formal politics, which has in any case failed to yield a serious result. If they had grasped the old folk wisdom that two heads are better than one. One thing is certain: we would have stood on firmer ground than we do now. Even now all is not lost. It's just that if you want to see, you first have to open your eyes (BORBA, 1999).
This passage speaks for the possibility of avoiding conflict if Western politicians has included the present-day Serbian politico-intellectual think tank in policies and discussion, shifting the liability from Serbia’s side to the side of the West. This is interesting in the light of the discourse expressing a support for the domestic policies and the nation state. Terms such as ethnic cleansing, are being reduced in the light of portraying imperialist meddling and interventionism as far more serious. One might interpret the following passage as a discourse expressing the West as not thinking through their actions and the consequences of these actions, where cynicism is expressed by the side of the Serbs towards NATO;
While assessing claims of "ethnic cleansing", it should also be recalled that major world powers have repeatedly cited ethnic strife as justification for imperialist meddling, preparing the scene for major disasters./.../ Likewise in Yugoslavia, imperialist intervention had the objective consequence of escalating the scale of communal violence and increasing the likelihood that it would spread to neighboring countries. /.../ NATO now says the main reason for its offensive is to return some 800,000 ethnic Albanian refugees to their homes in Kosovo. This is where cynicism reaches new heights (BLIC, April. 1999).
This discourse, expressing NATO as a tool for the West being acquisitive and unscrupulous is in the following passage once again clearly stated. The West is furthermore seen as arrogant, and thus the discourse in background of the previous examples is stated. It is furthermore seen
as not only seeking to show off its own abilities, but as well as acting in a way that sets the modernization and development of Serbia back in their domestic progress;
NATO's unannounced war grew into a naked idolatry of power and arrogance of power, and struck people in their homes, suburbs, workers' colonies, railroads, bridges, buses on the first Sunday of May, demolishing symbols and construction feats commemorating modernization attempt of this country in the second half of the 20th century (VREME, June. 1999).
Gellner states “nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist” (Gellner, E. 1964). This is further encapsulated by Chantal Mouffe stating "according to Ernesto Laclau and her [myself], there is no predefined political identity, the "we" in politics does not exist before its construction." (Mouffe, 2017: Le Figaro). What these have in common is the principle of the nation as a constructed identity that primarily has to be conceived as an infinite construction.
The Author Lene Hansen argues in Security as practice (2006), that when it comes to the external constraints on policy:
foreign policymakers usually face a series of limitations on which policy can be promoted, and thus which representations of identities can be articulated. Such constraints might be based on military capabilities, institutional pressures from bureaucracies and the armed forces, the media, or recent experiences of humiliation or defeat. These external constraints are not, however, objective material factors constituted outside of discourse but situated within, or products of, older and competing discourses (Hansen, L. 2006).
One of the main focuses of the ontology and epistemology of post-structuralist discourse theory is the concept of identity, and as previously discussed identity is produced through and dependent of foreign policy, its existence is relational and discursive.
This relational and discursive creation as well constructed a norm of the “Responsibility to Protect”, which was borne out of the international community's failure to respond to tragedies such as the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 and the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. In the late 1990s NATO intervened in Kosovo without Security Council authorisation, though having wide support for moral legitimacy (Ambos, Kai. 1999). This event brought the debate on
humanitarian intervention to surface, questioning international law and the threshold for intervention. The term “responsibility to protect” has become common in international discourse when it comes to sovereignty and intervention and has on the latter been incorporated into important international documents, amongst others and most notably the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document. In 2009 the General Assembly started its work with operationalizing the concept, a discourse that can be regarded in several different manners. It has created a norm where states feel obliged to maintain the principle that they have responsibilities to their own citizens which transcend cultural, religious and ethical grounds.
6. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION
In this scientific paper, the signifiers in appendix 2 have been used as guidelines for the analysis concerning these above mentioned grounds and the relation nation-people. The most commonly occuring signifier is “war” and “people”, identified as a nodal point and surrounded by flowing signifers from the appendix “courage” and “free” as well as “victim”, “desperate” and “innocent”. This is decided by the contrasting positions, still where NATO remains bearing the signifiers of “dangerous” and “mercenary”, while the discourse surrounding the nodal point of “people” shifts from “victims”, “helpless” and “desperate” to being ordinary citizens with high combat moral, suggesting the signifiers “strength” and “bravery”.
The West, however, claims to have intervened quite unselfishly, in the name of humanity only and not in the interests of any particular country. The launching of military forces has always required a specific state reason, certainly selfish and rarely related to any morality. As seen in appendix 2, the concept “humanitarian” is mentioned 22 times. When looking upon the chains of equivalence attached to this concept, the discursive stance towards the West as humanitarian in the frames of this case study shows a Serbian perception that differs. For example;
Perhaps the humanitarian situation has not been improved, the withdrawal of the verification mission and the beginning of the air campaign created the conditions for true catastrophe for the Kosovo Albanians, but still the Western officials can do nothing but keep proclaiming their good intentions and noble aims which, as it were, have turned into something quite different (B92, 99).
