balkanization

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.countablehistoricaluncountable

2. (by extension, informal) Any disintegration or fragmentation process.Examples: "demographic balkanization"; "Issues that are already hotly contested become even more divisive in the context of social balkanization."; "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?"Synonyms: fragmentationbroadlycountableinformaluncountable