Inhabiting the Theater of War: The Discourse Models of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in Milošević’s address to the nation and Đukanović’s address to the citizens of Montenegro

Abstract

This article suggests that illuminating Discourse Models in key discourses, like addresses to the nation, can help us make sense of the actions and relations between political actors, in this case Serbia and Montenegro. The material analyzed in this article is the address to the nation given by Slobodan Milošević, president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, published in the pro-government Serbian newspaper Politika, and the address to the citizens by Milo Đukanović, president of Montenegro, published in the pro-Montenegrin newspaper Pobjeda. Đukanović and Milošević were political enemies at the time. Serbia and Montenegro led different politics even though they were part of the same country and as such they were both bombed.  In their addresses, Đukanović and Milošević used different Discourse Models (Defence War Discourse Model vs. Neutral Mediator Discourse Model) and by doing so they set limitations to readings, not only to these initial texts, but to all the subsequent texts, and anticipated different representations of the outcome of the war.