Naimark & Case, eds., Yugoslavia and Its Historians: Understanding the Balkan
Wars of the 1990s Yugoslavia and Its Historians:
Understanding the Balkan Wars of the 1990s
Edited by Norman M. Naimark and Holly Case
Most of what has been written about the recent history of Yugoslavia and the
fierce wars that have plagued that country has been produced by journalists,
political analysts, diplomats, human rights organization, the United Nations,
and other government and intergovernmental organizations. Professional
historians of Yugoslavia, however, have been strangely silent about the wars and
the breakup of the country. This book is an effort to end that silence.
The goal of this volume is to bring together insights from a distinguished group
of American and European scholars of Yugoslavia to add depth to our historical
understanding of that country's recent struggles. The first part of the volume
examines the ways in which images of the Yugoslav past have shaped current
understandings of the region. The second part deals more directly with the
events of the recent past and also looks forward to some of the problems and
future prospects for Yugoslavia's successor states.
Stanford University Press (Stanford, California)
2003
320 pages, 1 map
ISBN 0804745943 cloth
hardcover price: $55.00
Norman M. Naimark is Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of East European
Studies at Stanford University. His most recent book is Fires of Hatred: Ethnic
Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Holly Case is a Ph.D. candidate at
Stanford University.
Montenegro in Transition: Problems of Identity and Statehood Florian Bieber (ed.)
SEER Paperback 14,90 ? 2003, 198 pp., ISBN 3-8329-0072-1
Now that the third Yugoslavia has ended and the new union of Serbia and
Montenegro emerged, it is apparent that one of the republic of this new state
remains still largely unknown in Western Europe and North America. The path of
Montenegro has differed from the rest of former Yugoslavia during the past
decade. Montenegro the smallest republic of former Yugoslavia emerged as the
only republic not to be engulfed in armed conflict. At the same time, it
remained together with Serbia part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and
will continue to form a loose union with Serbia for the coming three years.
Montenegro is, however, likely to continue its path towards being an independent
player in the politics of Southeastern Europe, a path it has pursued since 1998.
This book is closing an important gap in the literature on the former
Yugoslavia. As the first overview over political, historical, and economic
developments in Montenegro during the past decade in English, it seeks to offer
a nuanced assessment of the difficulties encountered by Montenegro during the
violent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Researchers from Montenegro and outside
cover all major aspects for understanding contemporary Montenegro; from its
historical origins and the identity of Montenegrin to political, economic
studies and an overview of minority-majority relations. Inaddition, contributors
survey the dispute over Montenegrin independence and the consequence of Belgrade
agreement from March 2002 on the future of the republic and its partnership with
Serbia.
The book is not only of interest for those seeking to understand contemporary
Montenegro, but also for scholars and students interested in the dissolution of
Yugoslavia and the conflicts and post-war transition the former Yugoslav space
engages in.
Florian Bieber is a senior non-resident research associate of the European
Centre for Minority Issues and an International Policy Fellow with the Open
Society Institute. He teaches at the regional Masters Program for Democracy and
Human Rights at the University of Sarajevo and at the Central European
University in Budapest, Hungary. He has worked extensively on Montenegro as
regional representative for the ECMI, based in Belgrade.
Contents: Preface (Florian Bieber), Montenegrin politics since the
disintegration of Yugoslavia (Florian Bieber), The dispute over Montenegrin
independence (Beáta Huszka), The Belgrade agreement: robust mediation between
Serbia and Montenegro (Wim van Meurs), Who are Montenegrins? Statehood,
identity, and civic society (Srdja Pavlovic), A short review of the history of
Montenegro (Serbo Rastoder), The economic development of Montenegro (Dragan
Djuric), National minorities in Montenegro after the break-up of Yugoslavia
(Frantisek Sistek and Bohdana Dimitrovova), Bibliography.
The book, containing 198 pages, is available at any bookshop or by direct order
to:
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Waldseestraße 3-5, D-76530 Baden-Baden.
Fax ++49 7221 210 443 or nomos@nomos.de.
YUGOSLAVISM HISTORIES OF A
FAILED IDEA Edited by DEJAN DJOKIC
'The volume has evidently been thought out clearly as a project, and draws
together works by contributors who are particularly well-placed to tackle the
topics allocated to them. It will be valuable to have essays by several
prominent [former] Yugoslav writers whose work is not generally available in
English.' - John B. Allcock, University of Bradford, and author of Explaining
Yugoslavia, Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2001
Now that united Yugoslavia has been officially consigned to history, the
time is ripe for historians and others to (re)visit it. The main aim of this
book is to explore the history of 'the Yugoslav idea', or 'Yugoslavism', between
the creation of the state at the end of the First World War in 1918 and its
dissolution in the early 1990s. The key theme that emerges is that Yugoslavism
was a fluid concept, which the different Yugoslav nations, leaders and social
groups understood in different ways at different times. There was no single
definition of who or what was (or was not) 'Yugoslav' - a fact which perhaps
indirectly contributed to the ultimate failure of the Yugoslav idea and, with
it, the Yugoslav state. Written by both established and younger intellectuals
from the region and from Western countries, Yugoslavism offers a unique
perspective on Yugoslavia's political, social, diplomatic and economic history
and contributes to a better understanding of the wars which followed the
country's dissolution.
Dejan Dokic, the editor, is a lecturer in Contemporary History at Birkbeck
College, University of London.
Contents:
Introduction: Yugoslavism: Histories, Myths, Concepts Dejan Djokic --Part I.
CONTEXT The Yugoslav Idea before Yugoslavia Dennison Rusinow --The First World
War and the Unification of Yugoslavia Kosta St. Pavlowitch --The Yugoslav
Question, the First World War and the Peace Conference, 1914-1920 Andrej
Mitrovic --Part II. NATIONS Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia Stevan K.
Pavlowitch --The Croats and Yugoslavism Tihomir Cipek --Slovenia's Yugoslav
Century Mitja Velikonja --Bosnian Muslims and the Yugoslav Idea Xavier Bougarel
--Macedonians and Albanians as Yugoslavs Hugh Poulton--Part III. LEADERS AND
INSTITUTIONS (Dis)integrating Yugoslavia: King Alexander and Interwar
Yugoslavism Dejan Djokic --Yugoslavism and Yugoslav Communism: From Tito to
Kardelj Dejan Jovic --The Two Yugoslavias as Economic Unions: Promise and
Problems John R. Lampe --Religion in a Multinational State: the Case of
Yugoslavia Radmila Radic --The Military and Yugoslav Unity Mile Bjelajac --Part
IV. INTELLECTUALS South Slav Intellectuals and the Creation of Yugoslavia
Ljubinka Trgovcevic--Ivan Mestrovic , Ivo Andric and the Synthetic Yugoslav
Culture of the Interwar Period Andrew B. Wachtel--Yugoslavism's Last Stand: a
Utopia of Serb Intellectuals
Aleksandar Pavkovic --Intellectuals and the collapse of Yugoslavia: the End of
the Yugoslav Writers' Union Jasna Dragovic -Soso--Part V. ALTERNATIVES The
Democratic Alternative Desimir Tosic --The Association for Yugoslav Democratic
Initiative Branko Horvat --Albanians in Yugoslavia: a Personal Essay Ramadan
Marmullaku--Funeral Oration for Yugoslavia: an Imaginary Dialogue with Western
Friends Aleksa Djilas http://www.hurstpub.co.uk/
Reviewed by Konstantin Kilibarda (University of Toronto), Email:
Kilibarda78@aol.com.
Cvijeto Job's Yugoslavia's Ruin is an informative account of Yugoslavia's
destruction from the perspective of a WWII-era anti-fascist veteran, a member of
socialist Yugoslavia's diplomatic core after the war, and a current local staple
within Washington D.C.'s think-tank circuit on Balkan affairs. Job's book is a
curious mix of personal narrative, history, and advocacy in favor of a more
robust international regime for the prevention of ethnic slaughter.
On the back cover, Job is described as a "Dalmatian, a Belgrader, a Croat...[but
above all] a Yugoslav" a designation he asserts with some pride in the book. His
self-identification, and his general approach, is a refreshing nod to the
complex identities that actually define many of those in the former-Yugoslav
space who come from mixed backgrounds (and who've had a difficult time slotting
themselves into any one of the "pure" ethno-nationalist identity boxes that have
been drawn around the regions peoples).
Job's book is divided into four parts, each of which is divided into three
chapters. The first section of the book deals with Yugoslavia's turbulent 20th
century history. The first three chapters therefore respectively look at: life
in royalist Yugoslavia, Tito's socialist experiment (including a veterans
account of Yugoslavia's popular anti-fascist national liberation war), and a
final section that explores some of the more pressing tensions that eventually
contributed to the demise of this state.
It should be noted that this historical backgrounder to the present Balkan
tragedy is immeasurably enriched by Job's insertion of vignettes that tie his
and his families personal history to the vacillations in Yugoslavia's fortunes
over the years. Furthermore, his sympathetic, light-hearted and often humorous
account of the ideals and romanticism that spurred the anti-fascist resistance
in Yugoslavia during WWII, and its considerable accomplishments in many fields
is welcomed (especially in light-of the all too facile recent denigration's of
this history by local Balkan chauvinist intellectuals, anti-communist émigré
Diasporas, and conservative pundits in the West). More importantly perhaps,
Job's celebration of the Yugoslav communists enormous successes do not blind him
to the real limitations, valid criticisms, excesses, and ultimate failings of
this unique brand of Western-sponsored socialism.
The second major section in "Yugoslavia's Ruin" looks at Yugoslavia's numerous
attempts to arrive at an ideal arrangement for the calibration of inter-ethnic
relations within a multinational state. The first chapter in this section,
therefore, addresses the history of competing self-determination claims in the
region, while the final two chapters devote their attention to socialist
Yugoslavia's innovative and ever evolving approaches in securing the rights of
the country's "nations and nationalities." Particularly useful for the
non-expert reader is Job's very easy to follow discussion of the sometimes
bewildering range of issues and legislative provisions regarding the rights of
different communities in the former Yugoslavia (including the more salient
controversies surrounding these provisions). While useful for the general reader
this section offers little that is new for experts already familiar with these
arrangements.
I was hoping that given Job's background he would have also dealt with the
interactions between intersecting class and ethnic identities in his analysis of
Balkan violence and claims to self-determination. While he briefly hints at the
relevance of this issue in his discussion of exploited Albanian migrant labor in
royalist Yugoslavia's urban centers, the socio-economic dimensions of
Yugoslavia's turbulent history are unfortunately left largely unexplored. To be
fair, of course, this is a critical lacunae that is evident in much of the
recent literature on the Balkans and is therefore not unique to "Yugoslavia's
Ruin."
The third section of Job's work is devoted to the Bosnian tragedy. The three
chapters in this section examine Bosnia's distinctiveness, the road to Dayton,
and finally end with a passionate defense of the rights of Bosniacs (i.e.
Bosnian Muslims) to assert their own separate identity. This last chapter, in
particular, is an important primer for those interested in undermining competing
Croatian and Serbian chauvinistic claims over Bosnia and its Muslim inhabitants
"true" identity.
However, given the evident humanism of Job's position (in his condemnation of
Croatian and Serbian particularisms), it is not clear why he uncritically adopts
the SDA (i.e. Izetbegovic's Party of Democratic Action) party-line and takes its
public diplomacy at face value. One need not resort to the construction of
ethnically particularist narratives, sanitize the recent history of Bosniacs, or
uncritically defend their leadership "a tendency he rightfully condemns among
many Serbian and Croatian apologists for their own sides crimes" to assert the
rights of Bosniacs and Bosnia to exist (or to condemn the aggressive
depredations of its neighbors).
However, Job's uncritical assessment of the SDA is perhaps consistent with a
broader tendency evident in his work and that in many ways idealizes US-agency
in the post-Cold War era. His fourth section is therefore unsurprisingly devoted
to well-known arguments in favor of NATO's (but preferably the UN's)
humanitarian militarism in an uncertain world. Here his discourse dovetails
neatly with the humanitarian interventionist logics of the Washington-based
think-tanks he approvingly mentions throughout the book.
It is unfortunate that in his argument for a robust interventionism Job never
considers moral critiques of humanitarian interventionism that caution against
the uncritical advocacy of such an agenda. This gap is especially interesting
given the substantial informed criticism of the dangerously militaristic
jingoism and racism that has been prevalent in US policy in recent years (which
has often curiously played on the same anti-Muslim orientalist discourses
rightfully condemned among Croatian and Serbian nationalists).
Particularly disturbing is Job's laudatory take on US intervention in Iraq
during the 1991 Gulf War and in its aftermath an action he unreservedly labels a
"historic, progressive precedent" (obviously a questionable proposition given
the tremendous toll that US-policy towards Iraq has had on the country's
civilian population) and his complete omission of any hint of Western complicity
in precipitating Yugoslavia's demise. While Job's ultimate goal the prevention
of ethnic slaughter - is shared throughout most of the world (one would hope!),
it is hard to see how one can build a cordon-sanitaire around the West and
thereby insulate it from criticisms of its own complicity in the perpetuation of
human-rights abuses and war-crimes (both globally and within the Balkan context
as well).
It should naturally be stressed that acknowledging the complicity of some
extra-regional actors in specific abuses during the Yugoslav tragedy through
their backing of various ethno-nationalist factions at various points in the
crisis (and even sometimes helping plan large-scale ethnic cleansing as in the
case of "retired" US generals) in no way absolves local actors of guilt for
their own crimes or in any way mitigates the impact of peacemaking efforts in
the region. In fact, it is possible that acknowledging Western sanctioned
war-crimes in the region would actually help the process of reconciliation
proceed more smoothly (it would certainly undercut a substantial basis for many
chauvinist apologias currently stunting much needed progress on this front!).
It is dispiriting that despite his anti-nationalist ethos Job has no problems in
using Washington's currently fashionable talk of protectorates and mandates.
Given that the history of Euro-American interventionism is fraught with its own
supremacist assumptions raises questions whether Job's prescriptions can truly
bring-about the world he wants without at the same time perpetuating the racist
logics he rightfully condemns.
This an earlier book reviews are available at:
www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans (as the
website is awaiting a major revamping, this and recent reviews have not be
included yet)
John B. Allcock, Explaining
Yugoslavia London: Hurst & Company, 2000, pp. xxvii + 440, 6 maps, bibliography, index.
20 GBP, ISBN 1-85065-5359 (hardback), 15 GBP, ISBN 1-85065-2775 (paperback)
Reviewed by Aleksandra Sasha Milicevic (University of California, Los Angeles)
Email: sasham@ucla.edu
Buy book from Amazon
In "Explaining Yugoslavia" John B. Allcock presents us with a long-term
socio-historical study of the region's past and present. On a most general
level, he starts within the framework of the globalization theory. Thus, instead
of focusing on the uniqueness of the "ancient hatreds" in the Balkans, Allcock
argues that the process of development in the region is closely related to, and
often shaped by, similar processes of global modernization in other parts of
Europe. And, if "balkanization" became a synonym with fragmentation and
conflict, claims Allcock, "this is because the region has been the arena in
which larger conflicts of European powers have been concentrated and, to some
extent, conducted by proxy" (p.24).
After positioning Balkan societies in the modern international order, Allcock
goes on with examining a wide variety of issues such as markets, industry and
trade, agrarian economy, population movements, class/state formation, failures
of democracy, civil society and citizenship, tradition, religion, national
identity and violence in South Slav societies. Such "thematic approach" that
develops several narratives (as opposed to a more common, chronologically
ordered single story) allows him to explore those issues more in depth and to
subject each of the separate stories to "critical scrutiny from some theoretical
or conceptual standpoint" (p. XII). Although this leads to some repetitions and
redundancies, Allcock skilfully ties all those different narratives together and
provides a comprehensive picture that clarifies some of the complexity of the
region.
Allcock is not a Marxist, but he devotes substantial part of the argument to the
questions of economy. Yet, his analysis is richly detailed and sophisticated, as
he debunks the myth about the clash between economically advanced and backward
areas and offers, instead, a hypothesis on contradiction between technical and
organizational imperatives of development. Specifically, he points out to an
opposition between the modernizing imperatives of industrialization and
politically determined anti-modern tendencies of the Yugoslav economy. Allcock
draws attention to the role that patterns of social inequality had in the break
up of Yugoslavia, particularly to the fragmentation of the elites and their
failure to adapt to the global context in which processes of modernization
advanced.
When he turns to the questions of nationalism and national identities Allcock
again demonstrates caution. He warns us that national identities in different
areas of former Yugoslavia were created by quite different processes and, hence,
came to mean different things. "The nation is constantly reinventing itself"
says Allcock, and in this process of reinvention uses wide range of symbolic
resources such as language or religion. Interestingly, Allcock points out ways
in which space, more particularly landscape, can be used in the imagination of
the nation. He utilizes Giddens' idea of the interweaving of time and space,
arguing that significance that is given to the spaces has to be understood in
terms of the historical narratives that link them to the people. The importance
of the symbolic space in relation to which nation is imagined can be equally or
even more important than the territory which is appropriated by the state. For
example, Serbs sometimes describe themselves as "heavenly people" and imagine
"Serbia" as a "rather metaphysical entity, symbolised and evoked by places and
by the idea of shared experiences which these evoke" (p. 346). In contrast,
Montenegrin identity draws on the relationship between national character,
national destiny and landscape, with clearly delineated boundaries of the
latter.
Allcock provides substantial material from the region in support of his
arguments, reflecting deep knowledge of, and passion for, the subject matter.
His analysis is stimulating and coherent. The only inadequacy of this book is in
the lack of more maps (only seven maps), as readers who are not sufficiently
familiar with the region may find themselves lost at some points. Nevertheless,
this book is an essential resource for anyone interested in the Balkans and a
number of its chapters can be used as reading materials for any class on
ethnicity in the Balkans, or ethnicity in general.
THE
POLITICS OF SYMBOL IN SERBIA Ivan Colovic
Translated from the Serbian by Celia Hawkesworth
For Colovic, symbols are central to politics. Not only do they provide the means
to acquire and maintain power: the very business of exerting and retaining power
is seen as having a symbolic side.
He develops this idea by investigating the symbols of politics and the politics
of symbols in Serbia and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The first part of the work, 'The Serbian Political Ethno-Myth', analyses
Serbian political mythology about the nation, in particular the role of
narratives in political discourse and notions of time, nature, borders, heroism
and national identity. The second part, 'From the History of Serbian Political
Mythology', is concerned with the historical development of Serbian political
myths. The third part, 'Characters and Figures of Power', comprises case studies
- taken from the Serbian press, academic texts and literature, political
speeches and from everyday life - which analyze political symbolism, myth,
rhetoric and propaganda. The final part, 'The Age of the Crowd', investigates
the relationship between the masses, mass culture and politics, including the
recruitment of football supporters into the war in the former Yugoslavia and how
symbolic communication has been used by Serbia's anti-Milosevic opposition.
Ivan Colovic is one of the most widely respected social theorists from the
former Yugoslavia but till now his influential writings have not been available
in English, although they have been translated into French and German. He has
published widely on urban and political anthropology and ethno-linguistics and
has also translated Barthes and Bataille into Serbo-Croat.
Celia Hawkesworth is Senior Lecturer in Serbian and Croatian at S.S.E.E.S.-UCL.
Her recent translations include Dubravka Ugresic's The Culture of Lies and The
Museum of Unconditional Surrender (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1998).
x, 328pp. October 2002
Hbk: £25.00 1-85065-472-7
Pbk: £16.50 1-85065-465-4
Contents: I The Serbian Political Ethno-Myth - II From the History of Serbian
Political Mythology - III Characters and Figures of Power - IV The Age of the
Crowd
'SAVIOURS OF
THE NATION' Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Rise of Nationalism
Jasna Dragovic Soso
'Saviours of the Nation' is the story of yet another "treason of the
intellectuals", of their seduction by a narrow cause at the expense of universal
principles. Soso charts the rise and fall of the people who were once called
"the Belgrade critical intellegentsia" - their progress (or regress) from a
Yugoslav-wide defence of civil rights and a declared commitment to democracy, to
acceptance of Milosevic's undemocratic solutions to the "Serbian question".'
(Professor Stevan Pavlowitch, University of Southampton)
Yugoslavia's violent breakup in 1991, and the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo
that followed in its wake, have been widely blamed on Serbian nationalism. Most
analyses, however, have not examined this nationalism in the years before
Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, when its principal articulators were
dissident intellectuals. Saviours of the Nation traces the trajectory of
intellectual opposition to Serbian nationalism from its origins in the 1950s to
its consolidation in the 1980s, arguing that the acceptance of Milosevic's
undemocratic approach to the national question undermined the intellectual
opposition's ability to present a convincing political alternative and was
crucial in allowing the regime to continue.
Jasna Dragovic Soso is a Research Fellow at the School of Slavonic and East
European Studies, University College London, working on problems of
democratisation, nationalism and international intervention in the former
Yugoslavia.
viii, 293pp. September 2002
Pbk: £17.50 1-85065-457-3
Hbk: £45.00 1-85065-577-4
Contents: Introduction-The Forging of Serbia's Intellectual Opposition-The
'Outburst of History' and the New Serbian Nationalism-The Watershed:
Intellectuals and Kosovo, 1985-8-Serbs and Slovenes: 'National Interests' in
Conflict, 1980-8- The Victory of 'National Homogenisation', 1988-91-
Conclusion-Bibliography-Index
