ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates whether certain concepts in the social sciences—;; pluralism, mobilization, social stratification, and consociationalism—;;have any explanatory power for the Bosnian Muslims' situation. It examines the feasibility of certain scenarios for the resolution of the conflicts in the region. The Bosnian Muslims had to obtain corporate recognition to influence government decisionmaking and distribution of political, as well as economic and other, resources. The relevance of ethnonationalism becomes even more obvious when one recalls that public policy, including foreign policy, is fabricated in response to decisionmakers' perceptions of the inhabitants of the area. State authorities, in fact, have occasionally sought to invoke the growing strength of religion to counter the threat of ethnonationalism. In the case of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito discouraged religious manifestations among the populace, but he was only too willing to trot out "his" Muslims for foreign policy purposes.
