Letter from Birmingham Jail
...s where much stronger than the Croatians and that Croatia had no army, for the Yugoslavian army was under Serbian control, Milosevic was able to enter Croatia and occupy approximately 25% of Croatia’s territory (Fogelquist). Sigmund Freud, a psychologist, states that “the living being…defends its own existence by destroying foreign bodies,” further emphasizing Darwin’s notion of “survival of the fittest.” Therefore, in order for Serbia to survive, it needed to complete its mission, the creation of a “Greater Serbia,” for it was vital for them to mobilize its army and attack Croatia. As for the psychological components that explain the causes for war, they are the result of the society the Serbs live in. The psychological theory of “in group bias” states that people are more likely to favor their own kind than those of another kind. This is why Milosevic sent the army into Croatia. He wanted to protect the Serbian minority that lived along the Serbian-Croatian border. This theory is also supported by Adam Smith, who in his book The Wealth of Nation’s, states that “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests.” This defends the notion that the Serbian people care for their own interests and ambitions. They wanted to create the “Greater Serbia.” During the six-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Ploje, Milosevic gained the support of the people by speaking about the injustices that Serbians have been victim to; such as having thousands executed by Hitler and becoming second class citizens under the Ottoman empire. With these, he compelled Serbians to war against the Croatians; proving C. A. Anderson’s frustration-aggression principle, which hypothesizes that certain stimuli can fuel a person’s aggressive behavior (Myers 515). This leads us into Irving Janis’ article, Victims of Groupthink, where he defines the phrase “groupthink” as “…a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures…” (Barash 31). We see Janis’ theory come into play with the Serbian people. One of the reasons why problems can not be solved is due to the group’s reaction to “…factual information and relevant judgments from experts, the mass media, and outside critics” (Barash 31). Up until the war in Croatia, Milosevic dictated the political thought of the Serbian people because he had control over the Yugoslavian government. This also included strict control over radio and television broadcastings (Malcolm 215). The final cause of the Yugoslavian war is the simplest: the problems of nationalism, ethnicity, and religion. Once World War II ended, the nation of Yugoslavia emerged. However, the nation was comprised of six different ethnic states (e.g. Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) and each state varied in religion and ethnicity. Croatia and Slovenia follow Catholicism and have strong ties to the European Community, thus, the EC was willing to support the secession of Slovenia and Croatia. As for Bosnia-Herzegovina, she has a large Muslim population and thus has strong ties with the Muslim culture. Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia follow the Orthodox Church and Byzantine culture. According to David Little’s article Religious Militancy, the reason why religion plays a vital role in help causing the war is that “…protecting religion is the same as protecting the fundamental habit of oneself and one’s group” (Crocker 87). The Orthodox countries untied as a group to help protect those that needed it. The EC embargo caused an unforeseen problem; it forced Europe to become bipolar. Romania, Greece, and such countries would not allow their religious brethren to be victims of an embargo, which they saw as unnecessary. Therefore, they supplied the Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia with the aid needed to pursue their mission. Nationalism is defined as an individual giving primary loyalty to their own ethnic and national group. This loyalty supercedes all other types of loyalty and by far has had the most influence in causing the war. Its influence allows many problems to arise, which make the movement dangerous. When the following two characteristics are present, the suppression of the movement becomes more difficult. The first danger of nationalism occurs when a nation does not have a state. According to Ted Gurr’s article, Minorities, Nationalists, and Ethnopolitical Conflict, he states that “The ‘ethnic criteria’ used by these groups to define themselves may include common descent, shared experiences, and valued cultural traits” (Crocker 53). Because various imperial powers had a great deal of influence in the Balkans, Serbia was never able to emerge as a successful and independent state. The only exception to occurred in the 12th century when Serbia underwent her “Golden Age,” which ended with Prince Lazar’s defeat at the Battle of Kosovo Ploje...