| Review of: | War and change in the Balkans: nationalism, conflict and cooperation edited by Brad K. Blitz |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Denisa Kostovicova |
| Reviewed in: | International Affairs |
| Date accepted online: | 10/04/2008 |
| Published in print: | Volume 83, Issue 06, Pages 1193-1234 |
Book Reviews: Europe
This volume focuses on four key transformations: Yugoslavia's disintegration and the creation of new states, the impact of nationalism on conflict and its subsequent decline, the role of international actors, and the process of democratization and European integration (p. 8). It gathers a wide range of contributors, including academics from both the region and abroad, journalists, analysts, policy-makers, diplomats and civil society representatives. Their contributions are organized into three sections.
The first section explores the conflict from the perspective of structures, ideologies and institutions with chapters on state construction and state failure by George Schpflin, nationalism by Ivo Banac and Slobodan Milosevic by Srdja Popovic. Daniele Conversi analyses Germany's recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, Kemal Kurspahic assesses the international community's role in Bosnia and Herzegovina, William Stuebner looks at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Fraser Cameron provides an overview of the EU's policy towards the Balkans.
The second section approaches the politics of the former Yugoslav republics from the vantage point of their Balkan neighbours, including the processes of regional stabilization and European integration. It encompasses Andrew Rossos's analysis of post-independence Macedonia, Branka Magas's explanation of Croatia's war, alongside Peter Galbraith's insight into peace negotiations in Croatia. It is followed by David Rohde's account of the fall of Srebrenica. Three subsequent contributions focus on Kosovo: Noel Malcolm analyses the conflict, Mark Bartolini focuses on humanitarian intervention and Bryan Hopkinson looks at the international administration. The focus shifts to the Balkan neighbours with Thanos Veremis's contribution on Greece, Ali Karaosmanoglu's on Turkey, Philip Sashko's on Bulgaria and Carole Hodge's on the impact of Greek and Italian engagement with Albania. The third section of the book addresses current problems associated with transition from war to peace in a contribution by editor Brad K. Blitz on sustainability of returns.
As the title suggests, the volume adopts a broad and non-committal approach to the questions of war, change and cooperation in the Balkans. The burgeoning scholarship on conflict and post-conflict stabilization of the region since the early 1990s has produced a debate informed by hotly contested explanations of the causes of war, the war itself, as well as the domestic and external challenges to post-conflict transition to self-sustainable peace. The debate is acknowledged only cursorily in this volume (p. 2).
The volume raises many issues, for example transition, war, change and cooperation, that are addressed idiosyncratically without explicitly engaging with the particular points of contention. The result is the abundance of assumptions regarding the origins, context and legacy of conflict. Some contributors prioritize the role of actors, others the role of structures in their analysis. Similarly, some emphasize internally and others externally generated dynamics of conflict and its aftermath. In sum, the volume collects a spectrum of perspectives on the themes of Balkan war and postwar transformation which do not necessarily amount to a coherent critique.
On the plus side, diversity of approaches can be taken as a reflection of the complexity of the field, and each contribution as a glimpse of the related debates. Rohde's interpretation of inaction in the face of the massacre in Srebrenica or Conversi's explanation of Britain's German-bashing tradition after Germany's recognition of Slovenia and Croatia are illustrative.
In addition, the contributions vary greatly in depth, detail and style. Thorough and informative academic contributions, such as Shashko's on the transformation of Bulgarian national identity, contrast starkly with impressionistic accounts of issues such as 'just' war by Bartolini. A valuable local perspective, such as Kurspahic's, loses out by attempting to cover too much, while Malcolm's narrow focus on the Kosovo conflict in 1998 and 1999 could benefit from a historical context. Of particular interest are Stuebner's personal insights as a former special adviser to the prosecutor of the ICTY into the early days of the Tribunal and the role of military intelligence; former US Ambassador to Croatia Galbraith's experience of brokering the Erdut Agreement, or the view of difficulties faced by the international administration in Kosovo by Hopkinson, the director of political affairs with the UN Mission in Kosovo. Though inevitably partial, these contributions by protagonists in the Balkans' transformation are welcome research material.
In sum, this is a volume to be read for a variety of views on war and change in the Balkans and a taste of a complexity of the literature on conflict and post-conflict transition in the region.