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Violence after the Clash: The Analysis of Post-Conflict Relations between Croats and Serbs in Eastern Croatia

According to Huntington “the former Yugoslavia was the site of the most complex, confused, and complete set of fault line wars of the early 1990s” (1996: 281). Starting from his description of the conflict between Croats and Serbs (at the primary level of involvement in fault line war) as extremely coloured by their nationalism, inflexibility and toughness in their demands and militancy in pursuing their goals, and also driven by the constant turmoil between these two groups in some parts of Croatia, this paper aims to provide insight into some aspects of the relations between Croats and Serbs in Eastern Croatia. The paper is based on the empirical data collected in 2013 on a convenience sample of Croats and Serbs in Eastern Croatia (N=1110). In order to present the relations between two groups the following set of dependent indicators was analysed by conducting series of bivariate and multivariate analyses: social distance expressed towards the opposite group (Bogardus, 1926), level of ethnocentrism (Šram, 2010), level of national narcissism (Golec de Zavala et al., 2009) and national self-esteem (Luhtanen and Crocker, 1992) as well as the expression of inter-ethnic hatred (Sternberg, 2003) and general siege mentality (Bar-Tal and Antebi, 1992). The differences in selected attitudinal constructs are analysed and compared between two subsamples along with controlling for the effect of specific socioeconomic characteristics as well as religious and political attitudes of respondents. The results are interpreted and compared to other relevant studies which indicate a significant association of nationalism (and related constructs) and attitudes expressed towards other ethnic groups, emphasising that the legacy of the conflict is still in power in parts of Croatia most affected by the war.

violence; post-conflict relations; Croats; Serbs; Eastern Croatia

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