The Politicality of Anti-War Acting

Abstract

Taking a critical feminist perspective as a point of departure and reference, the author explores the politicality of anti-war engagement as a civil and ethical ‘investment’ despite dilemmas and ambiguities in terms of approaches to confronting the realm of the ‘event’ in former Yugoslavia that appeared in its most dramatic form – war violence. In this chapter both the issue of civil disobedience against hegemonic and militaristic ‘normality’ established through militarised actions, retaliation and massacre of civilians, detention camps, discrimination against women, ethnic cleansing and war terror as well as the issue of creation of the transnational civil spaces and networks crossing the divided communities during the 1990s in the post-Yugoslav region, are addressed. The author argues that the resistance consciousness present within peace circles – and among feminists in particular – across the militaristic frontiers fostered an active critical stand against ‘the production of human havoc’ by insisting on the political responsibility for the specific war crimes and actions. At the same time it created a platform for rethinking the questions pertaining to human vulnerability, security, community, political sociality, history, de-humanisation and destruction in a globally-interrelated and ethically radical manner.