ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Yugoslav crisis, with its armed conflict, ethnic cleansing and the reverberating ideas and mindsets, has been going on for more than ten years. The Road to War in Serbia is the first serious assessment to explore the roots of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Based on years of research, the authors - all eminent scholars in the field who have lived through these social conflicts - highlight key issues which have to date remained unknown or which have been previously neglected.

The issues dealt with include the institutional frameworks of ethnicity and nationalism; the input of the church, science, literature and sports; specific catalysts of the conflict and the role of the political actors, students, the ruling party and the media.

The Road to War in Serbia will be of great interest to all readers who want to understand why and how the violent option of settling disputes and conflicts on the territory of Yugoslavia is being accepted.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Nebojša Popov is Scientific Counselor at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory of Belgrade University. He is the former President of the Yugoslav Association of Sociology.

REVIEWS

“This volume stands as a unique collection of provocative ‘self’ (of the Serbs) examinations. One can only hope that Popov’s invitation to the intellectuals from other involved ethnic groups is met with similar enthusiasm. … It is imperative that Western scholars, policymakers and Balkan wathchers have access to works such as this one, lest they become too reliant on the abundant but often incomplete and presumtuous publications by journalists and Western power brokers.”

-- Ian Sethre Austrian Studies Newsletter

“As the Balkan wars, cold wars and what the American media have consistently referred to as ‘crises’ are approaching their tenth anniversary, a solid body of literature that attempts to explain the origins of the breakup of Yugoslavia has emerged. … The Road to War in Serbia is an indispensable resource for anyone who hopes to look beyond the oft-proferred monocausal explanations of the catastrophes in the Balkans. The diversity of texts, of the authors’ backgrounds and of their assumptions leaves a sense of open-endedness, which is the greatest value of this book. After studying it the intelligent reader will be one step closer to a serious, scholarly investigation into the origins of the conflict among the former Yugoslav republics, regimes and people.”

-- Emil Kerenji Central Europe Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction.

The Destruction and Creation of a State – The war for ethnic states, Yugoslavia as a mistake, Traumatology of the party state

Roots of the Trauma – The flight from modernization, An uneasy view of the city, The unresolved genocide, Who exploited whom? Kosovo in the collective memory, The migrations of Serbs from Kosovo during the 1970s and 1980s

Ideological Bearing – The church and the ‘Serbian Question’, The abuse of the authority of science, The university in an ideological shell, The birth of nationalism from the spirit of democracy, Populist wave literature, Football, hooligans and war

Political Mobilization – The 1974 Constitution as a factor in the collapse of Yugoslavia or as a sign of decaying totalitarianism, The ruling party, The traumatic circle of Serbian opposition, An alternative to war, The army’s use of trauma

Media War – Politika in the storm of nationalism, Turning the electronic media around, The nation: victim and vengeance, The nationalization of everyday life

Conflict and Compromise – The international community and the Yugoslav crisis

Bibliography