THE IMPACT OF ETHNICITY IN REGIONAL CONFLICTS COMPARING BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA WITH KOSOVO

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects that lead to the ethnic conflics. From different studies there may be assessed that the reasons leading to ethnic conflict are numerous. For the sake of this paper and to have a clear picture of the issue, there will be analyzed the ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. These are the latest and most important conflicts that have occured in Balkans. The latter has always been a hot point in terms of conflicts, but the conflict in Kosovo and Bosnia are a unique case in terms of casuallities. In the analysis there resulted many factors that had the same impact for both states, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. On the other hand, in Bosnia-Herzegovina religion was an important factor which leaded to conflict, but it cannot be said the same thing also for Kosovo. While in the case of Kosovo, the inter-ethnicity was an actor which stimulated the conflict unlike in Bosnia-Herzegovina.