Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer/Autumn 2018 | Page 39

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
with this statement, it is crucial to put into question the driving forces that characterize
post-conflict settings: is reconciliation too ambitious an aim? Would it not be more appropriate
to focus on more modest goals�that can at least be reachable?
These questions do not mean that conflict transformation can be reduced to simplistic
and exclusively cultural processes. It is clear that culture and art alone will not solve the
situation in BiH or in any other post-conflict context. In the aftermath of mass atrocities,
transformations must take place on both structural and psychosocial levels in order to
move forward. This evolution requires determined efforts by official representatives on
all sides and the active participation of all actors affected by the past violence. These two
conditions are to some extent missing in the Balkans.
To conclude, it is worth underlining the ambivalence of art and culture. They are neither
positive nor negative as such: their meaning depends on the objectives that are
pursued and the contexts in which they occur. The last century tragically demonstrated
their power to divide people. Music was employed at many occasions to incite violence
and reinforce exclusive identities or used as a weapon, even as an instrument of torture
(O'Connell and Castelo-Branco 2010). It is time for scholars and practitioners to question
the mechanisms at work and to expose the conditions that guarantee successful
cultural policies in terms of conflict transformation.
Emilie Aussems is a teaching assistant and Ph.D. candidate at the Catholic
University of Louvain (UCLouvain-Belgium). She is a member of the
Centre for International Crisis and Conflict Studies within the Institute of
Political Science Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE). Her research focuses on issues
of postwar reconciliation and the role of culture�more specifically art and
music�therein. She is interested in the geographical region of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (and more broadly former Yugoslavia) where she has carried
out several stints of fieldwork.
References
O’Connell, J.M., and S.E.S. Castelo-Branco (eds.). (2010) Music and Conflict. Urbana,
IL, Chicago, IL, and Springfield, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Rehn, O. (2005) The Balkans, Europe and Reconciliation. Debate in Sarajevo University,
Speech/05/434 Sarajevo, July 11.
Urbain, O. (2008) Music and Conflict Transformation. Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics.
London, New York: I. B. Tauris.
36