Nation on Alert: SDS’s Radical “Othering” and the Priming for Violent Ethno-Separatism

Abstract

The chapter discusses radicalization of SDS’s discourse that began after the party secured electoral victory and continued until the outbreak of the Bosnian War. It traces the intensified circulation of fears and animosities as manifested in the framing of specific events, such as the outbreak of war in Croatia, the rival parties’ moves toward Bosnia’s independence, and SDS’s own creation of exclusively Serb territorial units. The chapter follows SDS’s agency to the establishment of a single Serb republic (today’s Republika Srpska), the unashamed xenophobic nationalism, and the launch of ethnic cleansing at the beginning of the Bosnian War. It also includes a series of pictures to illustrate the party’s discursive escalation.