Comment: post-war settlements and the production of new illegalities

Abstract

Anthropologists examining gender violence and migration in post-conflict societies have grappled with a variety of analytical and methodological issues. While much of this work has provided some vivid ethnographic accounts of the local context and complexities of conflict, at the same time, research in this area has often raised challenging questions about the conditions, causes and consequences of human harm and how best to go about analyzing them. Andrew Dawson’s exploration into the landscape of human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina brings us similarly rich and problematic conclusions and is timely and useful both for what the data show as well as for what Dawson is not able to tell us about the exploitation of women and children in post-conflict areas. Dawson has three important stories to tell. First, he seeks to understand the process and outcomes of the scaling back of international assistance in BiH and its effects on both the local community and on criminal activity. In doing so Dawson moves us off the well-traveled paths of post-conflict studies and into the less understood (and still poorly documented) account of the dismantling of the development machine. Second, Dawson engages the dynamics of human trafficking, beginning with a summary of the problem as it is conventionally known to have emerged and thrived in BiH, and then with a consideration of how the post-post conflict environment may contribute to what scholars suggest is the transforming nature of the practice. As the international community pulls back from the frontline of rebuilding a war-torn area, and after installing what appears to be a solid, wellstructured anti-trafficking response in cooperation with state authorities and international expertise, trafficking goes ‘‘underground’’ essentially turning into a ‘‘cottage industry.’’ Tracing the details of this trend is of particular interest to scholars of gender violence and international criminal justice. Third, and perhaps most intriguing (and frustrating), is the ethnography of rebuilt communities after