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Reviewed by:
  • The New Balkans: Disintegration and Reconstruction
  • Gerasimos Augustinos
George Kourvetaris, Victor Roudometof, Kleomenis Koutsoukis and Andrew G. Kourvetaris , editors. The New Balkans: Disintegration and Reconstruction. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs. 2002. Pp. ix, 468. $75.00.

The violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s elevated tensions throughout Southeastern Europe, triggered charges of genocide, and confronted the European Community (European Union) and NATO with an in-area crisis. Furthermore, it challenged the United Nations and the United States in the post–Cold War and New World Order era with the first major conflict in Europe since the end of WWII and raised concerns that the Balkans, a region that [End Page 208] became associated with warfare and instability in the late nineteenth century, was once again engulfed by this negative historical legacy.

The volume brings together papers from a number of scholarly venues going back almost a decade, including a special issue of a sociological journal, conference panels of the American Sociological Association, and contributions solicited in Greece and the United States. The papers are grouped into three overlapping categories: issues of ethnic conflict, economic development and civil society, and geopolitical and security themes. Most of the chapters focus on specific countries, while a few have a regional and “Atlanticist” perspective. Although the title of the volume refers to the Balkans, the great majority of the chapters deal with the events related to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and focus on the western Balkans. The papers draw largely on western European (English language) source materials while the primary Balkan language of most of the contributors is Greek.

With regard to the subtitle—Disintegration and Reconstruction—the contributions to the volume emphasize the former theme. In the Introduction the editors offer a pastiche of history and social science ideas in order, as they proclaim, to “shed a new light” and to “understand the roots of the conflicts.” Readers with even a basic knowledge of the history of the Balkans will immediately recognize the references to great power diplomacy in the region, the development of nationalist movements and creation of states based on the national idea, and the ascendancy of the negative connotation to the geographical term for the region. To this traditional historical overview are added admonitions about the need to develop civil society and the economies of the states with references to “transnational legal regimes,” “global rules” and the “global circulation of goods.” If there is an overarching theme here, it is the hoped-for progress of the Balkans from nationalism (ethnic particularity) to globalism (multicultural diversity).

Some of the chapters are devoted to discussions of the nationalist-grounded disputes that troubled the Balkans in the 1990s. They include the diplomatic turmoil between Greece and the former republic in Yugoslavia of Macedonia over its name, contentious nationalist issues between Croats and Serbs, and the ethno-nationalist antagonisms that wracked Bosnia. Related to these matters, there are chapters that consider the role of individual countries and organizations outside the region, including the UN, the European Community, and NATO. The arguments in these accounts range from castigation of states like the US for the manner and consequences of their involvement in the region, with little knowledge of its history, to non-controversial suggestions that organizations like the EU, NATO, and various NGOs should help rebuild the economies, develop democratic institutions, and integrate the new (i.e., post-Yugoslav) Balkans into a prosperous and stable Europe.

Much, of course, has been happening in the region relating to a number of issues the authors deal with. Just in the past two years, 2003–2004, new members have been inducted in NATO; Turkey has been pressing for EU membership and talking about movement on the Cyprus issue; efforts are ongoing to deal with refugees in Bosnia and Kosovo; and ethnic tensions [End Page 209] continue to trouble the southwest corner of the region. It is understandable, therefore, that the views of the authors regarding issues such as the role of NATO in the region, Turkey’s place and role in the area, and the future of Kosovo in Serbia can only be tentative. But more importantly, it would have helped “to shed new light” if...

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