The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999

For my work as an economist I had just started to work on Balkan economies in the framework of EU Enlargement. I think one of the prerequisites in understanding an economy as a social system and its future possibilities is to take account of its history, and so I collected several books on Balkan history.

I found Glenny's book fascinating, providing real insight into the complex and bloody history of the countries of the region, ethnicity, language, religion all playing important roles, as did the Great Powers surrounding the region and constantly short-changing these countries, pawns in a shifting chess game. It is a bewildering mixed tale of countries both as victims of the shifting alliances and politics of the reactionary Empires and, at the same time, as willing participants in bloody wars as often with as against each other, crossing religion, ethnicity and language.

Reading this book gave me a real 'feel' of the region and its political and social problems, and I also much appreciate that he minces no words and is pretty even-handed as fas as i can tell; uncomfortable truths for all parties are clearly and repeatedly noted. For instance, that no massacre in the modern history of the Balkans took place without the more or less active support of the government, who then conveniently hid behind the fig leaf excuse of 'ancient hatreds'. As Glenny notes, 'the current enemy is always the eternal enemy'. Or that the reactionary Great Powers often deliberately held back any economic and social development in a desperately poor region for the sake of power politics, never wondering whether this would be in the interest of the poor and long-suffering peasantry who lived there. None of the participants (the Balkan countries themselves nor its rich and powerful neighbours) get away with a clean bill in Glenny's account.

I missed a proper discussion of the economic dimension that (as Mr Glenny also indicates) played an important role in the political and social development (or lack of it) in the region, and I found the tale on the political developments not always easy to follow. That said, and then again, the subject itself is complex and the book does a great job in giving a sense of overview of the most bewilderingly complex region in Europe. It is very hard to understand current developments in the Balkans without a historic context on (modern) history such as Glenny provides. And it needs to be taken into account more than ever with the process of EU enlargement that brings these countries closer in a binding intergating economic and political framework than ever before, which is exactly the point of course. This is important reading and one of the best books i have read on the subject so far.

I'll ignore Romania, Bulgaria & the rest of "peaceful" (more or less) Balkan countries and cast a glance on another Glenny's escapade into virtual political reality. While he may be right in stating that the West's reactions have been a mixture of ignorance, superciliousness and shortsighted & short-termed objectives, a few things remain, despite his apologia-pro-politica-Serbiana, incontrovertible:

The NATO action was a reaction to Milosevic's intensification of military operations followed by a humanitarian disaster. The scale of ethnic cleansing was not exacerbated by NATO's intervention; perhaps, only accelerated. What's the alternative ? Stay back and applaud him while he operationalizes his final solution, sneering at your face at the same time ? So, under Glenny's eyes we have the following scenario:

a) Albanians are given tacit approval to provoke

b) they provoke

c) Serbs react

d) NATO intervenes

Dont you ( imaginary reader) think that the preceding scenario is slightly biased towards NATO ( why the hell would they care for a muslim tribal ragtag in Europe's dump ?) and would require combined efforts of Mulder and Scully to resolve ( or further complicate ) the mess ?

As far as "prophetic" Bildt and poor Cryina Serbs, a line or two have to be added:

Nobody "drove them out". That's the fate they themselves had chosen. The central difference lies in the fact that no Croatian military units were involved in forced "transportation" or similar stuff. More: during "Lightning" and "Storm" operations, large-scale negotiations had been held with the representatives of Serbian military & civilian authorities in order to persuade them to stay. To no avail. The siren call of Greater Serbia was stronger. That's the Serb way. They either rule as a privileged caste ( parallels with the French in Algeria or the Portuguese in Mocambique are obvious ) or flee to their motherland when the system of exploitation, which they have been so avid a part thereof, breaks.

Since book is well written, I give it 3 stars. Otherwise-it's detestable

In a literate, knowledgeable, and comprehensive monograph that accomplishes the incredible feat of clarifying and organizing the seemingly endless complexities of the region, Misha Glenny sets the record straight regarding the history and prospects for the Balkans. In a history going back two hundred years, Glenny illustrates how the current miasma of internecine violence, endless distrust, and legendary duplicity arose out of the mix and conflicts of ethnicities as well as the gross intermittent interference of the great powers. Far from flying with the angels, efforts by other nations such as Germany, NATO, and especially the United States have intensified and exacerbated the region's tensions and proclivities toward murderous intramural conflicts.

While to the casual foreign observer the region has long been a source of mysterious political arrangements and impenetrable complexities, the author lays to waste all of the West's convenient and self-serving notions describing the inhabitants of the Balkans as less than civilized, and shows how the nature of the troubles in the region can be traced to the arbitrary and capricious meddling foisted onto the residents from outside, usually by international agencies ignorant of the various ethnic mixes and profound historical connections standing in the way. Probably the single best example of this often well intentioned ignorance is the Dayton Peace Accords, which the author claims effectively partitioned Bosnia and Herzegovina without adequately solving any of the core problems underlying the ethnic unrest in the area. As a consequence, Glenny states, peace will reign in Bosnia only as long as the UN troops remain.

The author pulls few punches, describing recent American policies as cowardly and selfish, fashioned more to attempt to meet their obligations without risking troops and the concomitant domestic political trouble the probable loss of American servicemen would mean. Indeed, he describes the colossal blunder of NATO in stating that there would be no engagement of ground troops in Kosovo as flashing a green light for Serbian troops to have their indiscriminate bloodbath and deny it too. In a chilling extraordinary passage describing recent international attitudes dominated by short-term political convenience and its consequences for the region, Glenny quotes Swedish mediator Carl Bildt as prophetically asking that if the world chose to ignore the atrocities of the incumbent and did not prosecute Croatian President Tudjman for ethnic cleansing, "how on earth can we object if one day Milosevic sends his army to clean out the Albanians from Kosovo?"

The author's narrative is immensely educational and useful for those of us less than fully familiar with the region, tracing the progress of each national group amid the ongoing struggles for statehood. His description is punctuated with provocative and fascinating stories illustrating the rich variety of peoples and cultures inhabiting the area. At the same time, he interweaves these anecdotes with a sharply focused narrative that succeeds marvelously in threading together the key events in the context of international affairs, and shows how powerfully these interactions have influenced the emergence of the different national groups and the explosive amalgams of the 1990s.

It is this key relationship between the interference of other countries and international agencies that Glenny has been so catastrophic for the region, and often the ethnic and regional enmities and hatreds have been intensified and magnified by the actions of these outsiders. In a stirring warning at the end of the epilogue, he warns "if the great powers fail to seize the present opportunity by investing heavily in the region, the suffering of the Balkans will surely continue for several decades into the new millennium". This is an important and seminal book, one that should be required reading for anyone trying to understand this area of the world, and a great introduction into the history of the region. Enjoy!

Finally a book that doesn't demonize Serbs but that gives a realistic view. It is good to see that people start to realize that that the "great powers" are also very much accountable for the suffering and the nationalism in this region. Mister Glenny wrote in his introduction that there might be mistakes in the book, there are. But I think that people their understanding of the situation in the Balkans will expand because of this book. Because this book also critisizes the west and people (not a nation) that are in governments, it is right to say that this book earns 5 stars. My only reccomandation to the author if possible is to request a translation of this book in the Serbo-Croatian language. So that the common person in any of the former Republics and in the FRY may learn of these things on a objective way.

As a student of international relations, if I had to recommend one book on understanding this sad and complex region, I would recommend "The Balkans." Misha Glenny writes with an authority that comes with having had a great deal of experience in the region. He eschews trite, simplistic analysis by tracing the region's troubles through the history of the Balkans involvement as a theater of intrigue for the great powers. An enormously informative and captivating read.