ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I further explore the post-communist ‘‘criminalization’’ of
Eastern Europe, focusing on narratives that use the wars of the 1990s in
the Balkans to externalize irredeemable criminal behavior (authoritarian-
ism, violation of human rights, ethnic cleansing, economic plunder and
speculation). Other Eastern European countries’ positions on the Balkan
wars serve to measure their allegiance to democracy, transitions, protec-
tion of human rights (and to disassociate them from old and new Oriental-
isms). The same language is used by the warring sides in the Balkans to demonize the enemy and invest their own causes with legitimacy. I sub-
ject to critique the resulting ethnicization of these discourses as Serbs,
Croats, Moslems, and Albanians each portray themselves as bearers of
democracy and multiculturalism, a strategy which in fact resonates with
the Western treatment of the conflict (with Serbs as the uncontested
pariah). Such treatment of the wars exposes the blind (racist) spots in poli-
tical debates from left to right, even in the most qualified apologies for
NATO interventions in the Balkans. I propose that we think this event through the tradition of Western imperialist desire to articulate, categorize,
and ultimately ‘‘resolve the mess’’ in both the Balkans and Eastern Europe,
as well as through Hardt and Negri’s (2000) discussion of the contemporary
logic of Empire and establishment of the right to intervene.
