Putting Bosnia in its Place: Critical Geopolitics and the Representation of Bosnia in the British Print Media

Abstract

Media reporting of the Bosnian Conflict (1992–1995) was significant in shaping Western policy responses to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. This article considers the role of the British print media in articulating and representing Bosnia as a place in the geographical imagination. Bosnia, for many, was a sophisticated place in the heart of Europe whilst for others it was Bosnia's Balkan identity and all the associated negative connotations which informed journalistic reports. Representations of Bosnia were further complicated by the use of historical and geographical analogies. Finally I argue that the war of words which defined the Bosnian conflict as a ‘civil war’ and the result of ‘ancient ethnic hatreds’ resulted in the war being seen as a humanitarian catastrophe requiring a humanitarian response. These contested and contradictory narratives of place had profound consequences for political and military strategies during the war and for the final settlement at Dayton in 1995.