Balkanization

See also: balkanization

English

Alternative forms

• balkanization
• Balkanisation (mainly UK)

Etymology

From Balkan +‎ -ization. The term is a reference to the conflicts that the Balkan peninsula experienced in the 20th century.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌbɔːl.kən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑl.kən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

Noun

Balkanization (countable and uncountable, plural Balkanizations)

1. (historical, chiefly political science) The fragmentation of a geopolitical region into several small states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other.
2. (by extension, informal) Any disintegration or fragmentation process.

   Synonym: fragmentation

   demographic balkanization

   • 2002, Carol M. Swain, The New White Nationalism in America, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 94:

     Issues that are already hotly contested become even more divisive in the context of social balkanization.

   • 2006, Anil K. Jain, Ruud Bolle, Sharath Pankanti, Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 401:

     In other words, will the biometric future feature biometric centralization whereby one biometric would dominate multiple applications, or will we see biometric balkanization where multiple biometrics are used for multiple applications?

Derived terms

• cyber-Balkanization

Related terms

• Balkanize

Translations

fragmentation of a region into several small states

Arabic: بَلْقَنَة f (balqana) Belarusian: балканіза́цыя f (balkanizácyja) Bulgarian: балканиза́ция f (balkanizácija) Catalan: balcanització f Chinese: Mandarin: 巴爾幹化 / 巴尔干化 (zh) (Bā'ěrgànhuà) Czech: balkanizace f Finnish: balkanisaatio French: balkanisation (fr) f Galician: balcanización (gl) f Georgian: ბალკანიზაცია (balḳanizacia) German: Balkanisierung (de) f Greek: βαλκανοποίηση (el) f (valkanopoíisi) Hungarian: balkanizáció Indonesian: balkanisasi Italian: balcanizzazione (it) Japanese: バルカニゼーション (barukanizēshon), バルカン化 (barukan-ka) Korean: 발칸화 (balkanhwa) Macedonian: балканизација f (balkanizacija) Norwegian: balkanisering Polish: bałkanizacja (pl) f Portuguese: balcanização f Romanian: balcanizare Russian: балканиза́ция (ru) f (balkanizácija) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: балканизација f Roman: balkanizacija (sh) f Slovak: balkanizácia f Slovene: balkanizacija f Spanish: balcanización (es) f Swedish: balkanisering (sv) c Turkish: Balkanlaşma Ukrainian: балканіза́ція f (balkanizácija) Vietnamese: Balkan hóa

any disintegration process

Catalan: balcanització f Chinese: Mandarin: 巴爾幹化 / 巴尔干化 (zh) (Bā'ěrgànhuà) Finnish: balkanisaatio French: balkanisation (fr) f Galician: balcanización (gl) f Georgian: ბალკანიზაცია (balḳanizacia) German: Zerfall (de) m Portuguese: balcanização f Russian: балканиза́ция (ru) f (balkanizácija) Spanish: balcanización (es) f

Further reading

• Balkanization on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Balkan Wars on Wikipedia.Wikipedia