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''Balkanization'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''Balkanization'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260202202216-00-⌔

Balkanization - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

Balkanization (countable and uncountable, plural Balkanizations)

  • (historical, chiefly political science) The fragmentation of a geopolitical region into several small states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other.
  • (by extension, informal) Any disintegration or fragmentation process.
    • (sociology, politics) The fragmentation of a society into hyper-polarized hostile factions.
    • ✤ Synonym: fragmentation
    • ✤ *demographic balkanization *
    • ✤ Issues that are already hotly contested become even more divisive in the context of social balkanization.1
    • ✤ 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?2

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˌbɔːl.kən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) IPA: /ˌbɑl.kən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 2002, Carol M. Swain, The New White Nationalism in America, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 94: ↩

  2. 2006, Anil K. Jain, Ruud Bolle, Sharath Pankanti, Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 401: ↩

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