Tunisia needs to keep trying

I know of no book comparable to this one that attempts a region-wide effort to account for both the wars and the peacebuilding of the 1990s and 2000s. It was with this objective in mind that I undertook in the spring of 2014 to deliver a series of lectures to students at the Pristina-based University College ISPE.  Avni Mazreku, the president of ISPE, a private institution, would have preferred that I appear and teach in Pristina, a proposition that was both daunting and expensive.  Instead we agreed to four 90-minute appearances by Skype, one each on Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, and the region.  

Those lectures are the origin of this book. I’ve added an introduction on “Why the Balkans?” and a chapter on the implications for the Middle East and Ukraine, as people often try to apply lessons from the Balkans to other areas.  I have spent most of the last 15 years and more working on Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and other majority Arab countries suffering from conflict and experiencing often unsuccessful transitions from autocracy. It would be hard for anyone watching the ongoing tragedies in Ukraine and Syria not to see multiple reflections of the conflicts and transitions in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo in the 1990s. But drawing any conclusions requires that we understand what is specific to the particular context and what might be more generally applicable.

I have tried to rely on the best, though mainly secondary, sources and included footnotes where I think appropriate.  I have also had access to some declassified State Department cables, released on my request under the Freedom of Information Act. The most relevant ones I’ve included in an annex. My emphasis is on explanation and re-interpretation, a kind of exegesis of events that in retrospect are more comprehensible than they were when they happened. I include my personal experiences where they seem to me to shed light on events and my interpretation of them.