Nationalism and the Other: The Making of Nation and the Nation-State In the Balkans

Throughout the twentieth century, ethnic structures continued to coexist under supranational political organizations not only because of historical legacy of imperial organizations transcending national identities and boundaries, but also due to the ideological coalitions among states aiming at the unification of peoples around common causes and/or cohesive interests. Both were true in the Balkans as a result of the integration of Ottoman nationalities into the imperial system of rule through partially autonomous millets until the end of the nineteenth century, and the functional organization of the Balkan nationalities around the ideology of political unity and military defense due mostly to the requirements of the Cold War.