Serbian Politics Research Articles

The Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy between the Croatian and Serbian Ideas of National Integration (1826–1848)

From the 1820s to the 1840s, the borderland between the Austrian and Ottoman empires witnessed the creation and development of national movements among Serbs and Croats who lived in administrative and political units with special legal status. One of these territories was the Military Frontier, which turned into a battlefield between the Croatian “Illyrians” (Zagreb) and the Serbian “rodoljubs” (Matica Srpska) for the sympathy of the population. The massive territory and dense population of the Military Frontier attracted the architects of territorial and national integration, and the paramilitary population was considered an instrument in achieving political goals. The population of the Military Frontier spoke the Shtokavian dialect of Serbo-Croatian (which also spread, for example, in Dalmatia and Slavonia), and for this reason the Illyrians took this dialect as the basis for Croatian literary language. In doing so, they were able to spread their ideas through printed materials, which they circulated in the Military Frontier. However, the Serbian “rodoljubs” suspected the Croats of wanting Croatisation and Catholicisation. Both national movements built their agitation on the basis of a historical narrative; Serbs by referring to heroes of Serbian history, and Illyrians by amalgamating Serbian and Croatian heroes together to create a single pantheon for all South Slavs. The Serbian Principality (under the rule of the Ottoman Empire) also claimed their share in the future Serbian unification. For its ruling elite, the Hungarian Srem with the residence of the Serbian Metropolitan was of particular interest. Some Croatian and Serbian politicians worked on a plan of joint action regarding the Military Frontier and turned to Polish émigrés for support.

Justiniana Prima and the Status of “Justinian’s Code” in the Serbian Political Culture of the 15th — 18th Centuries

Justiniana Prima and the Status of “Justinian’s Code” in the Serbian Political Culture of the 15th — 18th Centuries

Ana is here: Abjection, class privilege, and the prime minister Ana Brnabic

This paper employs the notion of abjection to explore how debates surrounding Ana Brnabic, the first openly lesbian prime minister in Serbia and Eastern Europe, stir affectively lined layers of prejudice across the political spectrum. Drawing upon a range of empirical sources, I argue that the actors engaging in debates about Brnabic?s both private and public life are entangled in a loop of abjection which, while comprising gender, sexuality, ?race?, and the body, reflects strong patriarchal undercurrents as structural features of Serbian politics.

Dynamics of the Serbian EU accession process – key issues and the challenges of state democratisation in an era of populism

The current Serbian authorities (aligned with the Serbian ProgressiveParty) have pushed Serbia towards effective reforms over the past severalyears and improved its image on the international arena through an intensifieddiplomatic offensive after 2015. This has led to a situation in which theSerbian state became a political and economic partner in both regional andintegration projects. The latter is demonstrated by the arduous but progressiveaccession process to the European Union.After 2000, international and Serbian public opinion greeting the end of theregime of Slobodan Milošević expected rapid democratisation of the statebased on statements by Serbian politicians who had declared a West Europeancourse of the state. The short-lived rule of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić,confirmed this; however, the policy of his successors was no longer so unambiguous.For almost a decade, Serbia oscillated between populism anddeclared democratisation, without making major changes, expected by bothsociety and the European Union.When after the year 2012 the Serbian Progressive Party came to power (theparty was founded as a conservative grouping and had radical roots), itseemed that the Serbian state would be pushed towards a more conservative,anti-European and nationalist direction. However, that did not happen.Opinion about the last six years of the group’s rule is varied. This paper aimsto try to answer the question whether during the party’s rule, Serbia has beendemocratising and whether in this era of nationalist movements and populism,the country has a chance at real democratisation and finishing the processof accession to the EU?

ANALYSIS OF CHANGE IN PARTY POSITIONS TOWARDS THE EUROPEAN UNION AGENDA IN SERBIA

Following many years of political competition in Serbia between reformists and nationalists, critical presidential and parliamentary elections were held in 2008 during the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo by Albanians in the shadow of the European Union (EU) agenda. 2008 elections reshaped party politics in favour of pro-Europeanism. This article analyses the change in party positions towards EU membership with the help of “process analysis” by referring to the independent variables of compliance, identification, and internalization, modelled by Herbert Kelman. The study focuses on following political parties that have shaped Serbian politics for a long time: The Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska Stranka Srbije - DSS), the Democratic Party (Demokratska Stranka - DS), the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska Napredna Stranka-SNS), and the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička Partija Srbije - SPS). Contrary to arguments, which suggest that party positions have changed due to EU conditionality with the help of internalisation variable; this article argues that for SNS and SPS “compliance”, for DSS and DS “identification” variable offers a more comprehensive causal explanation.

Planovi delovanja Srbije u Staroj Srbiji i Makedoniji i metode njihovog sprovođenja od 1878. do 1884. Godine

Everything that had happened to Serbian people during a long period of slavery under Turkish authority, was also being repeated in Old Serbia and Macedonia after Berlin Congress, when The Principality of Serbia became internationally recognized state. Saved archival documents from this period undoubtedly show all the cruelty with which Albanians and Bulgarians, encouraged and helped by Turkish authorities, tortured, killed, burnt, robbed and persecuted Serbs from Old Serbia and Macedonia. This kind of position of Serbian people in Old Serbia and Macedonia obliged Serbia to intensify its state and national political activity with the aim of their protection. Serbian politicians, diplomats, scientists and publicists start dealing more studiously with Old Serbia and Macedonia. At these Serbian areas people are travelling, recording and trading more and more, cherishing the connections among people, and, in many different ways, reviving old Serbian traditions. Thanks to their reports, the real image of state in Old Serbia and Macedonia started to be created in Serbia. Thanks to them, Serbian Government could intervene at great powers in Constantinople in order to protect Serbian people. To save Serbian people from Albanian-Turkish attacks and also from stronger and stronger Bulgarian exzarchian propaganda in Old Serbia and Macedonia, the work plan should have been made, according which, in future, they could work in organized and systematic manner, so that Serbian people could save their national conscience and strengthen their aspiration for national unity and the unification with The Kingdom of Serbia. In April 1883, the commission for plan making was formed. It consisted of educational and public workers, like archimandrites - Nicifor Ducic and Sava Decanac and the professor of Prizen's Gospel-Ðorde Kamperelic. In order to continue the work, at the plan making, the commission should have used all previous experiences in work, and especially the reports about the work of people who had previously been involved in these activities (Miloš S. Milojevic, archimandrites Sava Decanac and Ðorde Kamperelic). Until 1884, lots of suggestions had been made and also the plans about concrete forms of national politics which Serbia could lead in European vilayets of Turkey. In these suggestions and plans, beside statements about difficult position of Serbian people, were also the measures which should be undertaken and their methods for suppressing Albanian-Turkish violence and Bulgarian propaganda.

Serbia: Interest groups in an unconsolidated pluralist democracy

Like Serbian politics in general, informal ways of conducting political business also characterize the country's contemporary interest group system. This is largely due to decades of authoritarian rule and less than 30 years' experience with pluralist democracy. Added to this, the period following the end of socialist Yugoslavia, particularly the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Milošević and Serbia's involvement in war, undermined the development of a pluralist group system. Despite these setbacks, and in the face of continuing constraints, several elements of a modern group system have begun to emerge. This development has contributed to the advancement of Serbia's brand of majoritarian democracy.

Emotions and Identity as Foreign Policy Determinants: Serbian Approach to Relations with Russia

The paper argues that while the Serbian society and political elite are known for treating their country’s accession to the EU in terms of pragmatic utility maximisation, they generally conceive of Serbian relations with Russia, contrariwise, as an identity-laden issue. To prove it, the author analyses Serbia’s behaviour toward Russia along the features of emotion-driven cooperation, found in the literature on identity and emotions in foreign policy. In particular, the paper focuses on Serbians’ especially strong friendliness vis-a-vis Russia, the parallel existence of the Other (the West) in their identity and the particularly strong intensity of their attraction to Russia during Serbia-West conflicts, the reinforcement of their affection to Russia by national traumas, the endurance of the affection’s strength despite conflicting rational interests and negative experiences in bilateral interaction, the frequent occurrence of references to Russia in Serbia’s domestic discourse and decisional justifications and a large use of historical analogies concerning Russia. Finally, the author ponders over the implications of the existent configuration of emotional and pragmatic forces in Serbian politics for the country’s current and future conduct toward Russia and the EU.

„Putovati i stalno pomerati cilj”: Nemačka i srpski državni narativ o evro-integracijama

European integration process has been one of the dominant topics in Serbian political agenda ever since the regime-change and the restoration of democracy in 2000. Social and economic reforms related to that process are metaphorically represented in Serbian political and public discourse as the “European path” of Serbia. It is a variant of the “Path to Democracy” metaphor and the idea behind it is the assumption that democracy is the most moral form of government (Lakoff 1999). The EU and its political, social and economic system are presented as the best model for the future of Serbia and the EU influence is openly accepted by the Serbian political elite as an integral part of policy-making process (Stojic 2006). Since this complex political, social and economic transition, commonly referred to as “reforms” in political and public discourse, often implies painful changes for different groups of Serbian society, it is important to present it not only as a desirable and necessary but also as an inevitable process. This is accomplished by a careful choice of argumentative tools that the Serbian political elite apply to discursively construct the Serbian Euro-integration process (“the European path” of Serbia). This discourse is an important part of Serbian state narrative, since it explains relations with other states and determines directions of definition for both internal and external politics. Because state narratives are an effective tool for spreading state ideologies, it is important to analyze them in order to better understand the political discourse and the actions it motivates within a society. Therefore, I build on existing scholarship on two important elements of Serbian state narrative on the European integration process, the conceptual metaphor and the cognitive frame, to examine ways in which this narrative is used by political actors to promote their political agenda, namely, the social, political and economic reforms Serbia is obliged to carry out in order to join the EU. Special attention is dedicated to the new framing of Germany, presented and perceived in public as a state with the crucial role for the success of Serbian “European path”. The corpus is composed of statements of the current president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and media reports on his activities, covering the topic of European integration process and the role of Germany in it. This particular corpus is chosen because of the prominent role Aleksandar Vucic has played in Serbian politics in the last several years, serving the most important political functions of Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister and President-elect, which makes him currently the key policy-maker in Serbia. The chronological span of the corpus is the period from the rise of this politician to power in 2012 till 2017, when he became President-elect of Serbia. My analysis shows that this political actor: a) metaphorically constructs the European integration process as the “European path of Serbia”; b) presents Serbian-German relations through new cognitive frames, by strategically using the traditional Serbian narrative on Germans and their states. In doing so, he deactivates the well-established frame of aggression and threat posed by the Germans and activates the equally rooted frame of Germans as disciplined and hard-working people. Using the metaphor “Nation/ State is a Person”, where national mentalities correspond to personal characteristics of an individual, Vucic emphasizes positive characteristics of German mentality as the model that Serbs should look upon in order to be successful in their “European path”. The objective of this frame change is to further promote and justify the social, political and economic reforms carried out in the transition process of Serbia, since these reforms often prove to be harmful for numerous groups in the Serbian society (the so called “victims of transition”). The structure of the paper is as follows: I first present the key theoretical concepts (state narrative, conceptual metaphor and cognitive frame) and then apply them to the qualitative analysis of the corpus. Certain discursive patterns have been observed both in Vucic’s statements and the media coverage of his activities. Relaying on theoretical framework based on postulates of cognitive linguistics and critical discourse analysis (which is interested in the ways language/ discourse contributes to the dynamics of power relations within a society), I offer possible explanations of meanings and functions of the observed discursive patterns. The results of the analysis confirm the importance of the strategic use of state narratives in political discourse as a part of the process of creation of new meanings and promotion of political agendas.

Identitet nepravoslavnih stanovnika Crne Gore i religija

This paper analyses the influence of religion on identity, especially the political identity and political behavior of the non-orthodox people of Montenegro. Goal of this paper is to show that non-orthodox minorities in Montenegro have a mass influence on the politics of this country. For example, without their votes, the independence of Montenegro would not be possible. This is very easy to calculate. 55% voted for the independence, and Muslims represents a little bit more than 19% of the Montenegro's population. All of them say they voted for the independence of Montenegro in 2006 referendum. Therefore, this political decision was highly dependent on the Muslim votes, and had a great influence on the Serbian interests. This fact should be highlighted. Moreover, one can say that this was one of the major defeats of Serbs in the last century. This paper shows that the identity of the Serbian speaking population of Montenegro is dependent on their religious background. Bosnians, Muslims, Montenegrin Muslims or Croats base their national identity on their Islamic or Roman Catholic confession. Moreover, this paper shows that the Albanian national question in Montenegro is a great example of how both Serbian science and politics failed to explain this issue. Serbian politicians and scientist are wrong in saying that Albanians are motivated only by antireligious nationalism in their actions, basing their attitude in complex Albanian society made of Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Due to this fact religious aspect was completely ignored. However, a great number of Albanians fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq are quite opposite to this attitude, and making Serbians to ask themselves - how is it possible that an atheist Albanians are fighting in the name of Islam? The situation is similar in Montenegro. In this paper we show that Albanians are also divided on religious lines and that this division has huge consequences. If Serbs has analyzed Albanians interreligious relations based on what we have in Montenegro, it would be easier for them to understand that Albanians failed to overcome their religious differences in the name of national unity, and consequently to understand why so many of them are fighting for ISIL. We also deal with the Croatian question in Montenegro. This paper will show that Montenegrin Croats are a part of the same Serbian body, like Bosnians or Muslims. They are divided from this body only because of their religious belonging to Roman Catholic religion. Under the pressure of the First Croat Catholic Congress in 1900 they accepted to declare as Croats as their national belonging. Prior to this, they were divided between the idea of Slavs and Serbs, all sharing the same Serbian background and language.

Corpus Evidence for Evidentials in English and Serbian Political Interviews

Corpus Evidence for Evidentials in English and Serbian Political Interviews

Osobna sjećanja sudionika i sudionica Domovinskog rata

Based on the analysis of in-depth interviews of oral history with 50 participants of the Croatian War of Independence, this article aims to analyze, comprehend and explain meanings which these 50 participants attribute to the Croatian War of Independence. The article examines the construction of the personal memories of those social actors who did not have political power during the period of war, and the central focus is placed on the social and cultural circumstances that influence the construction of personal wartime narratives. The article discusses and ultimately concludes that the personal narratives are largely witness to the previously planned, aggressive and genocidal nature of Serbian politics led by Slobodan Milosevic which served as the cause and start of the Croatian War of Independence. Furthermore, personal narratives reveal the large-scale destruction of Croatian cities during the war (urbicide and culturocide), and the distancing of interpersonal (inter- -national) relationships as a consequence of the war. Ultimately, although multilayered in their narrative explications, the personal narratives of people who experienced the Croatian War of Independence are compatible with the concept of the Croatian War of Independence as an aggression towards Croatia, with the aim of destruction of the Croatian national identity and conquest of Croatian territory.

The power of politics: How political leaders in Serbia discursively manage identity continuity and political change to shape the future of the nation

AbstractThe construction of national identities through political discourse is a growing field of interest to social psychologists, particularly as many countries face changing demographics, borders and social realities as part of globalization, immigration and continued political integration and conflict. Through an analysis of 17 key speeches by Serbian politicians over the past 25 years, the present paper explores the question of how politicians, as entrepreneurs of identity, discursively manage the relationship between identity continuity and political change over time, in attempts to construct the future of a nation. We particularly explore this issue in the context of Serbia's present political aspirations toward joining the European Union. The findings indicate that (i) political change becomes negotiated within the framework of established and legitimized identity discourses that have developed over time, and (ii) while history is frequently drawn on to support political agendas, it is successful to the extent that this history offers a sense of cultural continuity rather than a coherent narrative of historical events and time periods. We conclude by arguing for the benefits that a diachronic approach to political discourse can offer social psychologists interested in the discursive construction of national identity.

Jasenovac—A Past That Does Not Pass

In this article the authors discuss the role of Jasenovac Concentration Camp in Croatian and Serbian political and social spheres. Connecting the historical data with the analysis of the recent mutual accusations of genocide between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the authors demonstrate the pervasive presence of Jasenovac in Serbian and Croatian political discourse. Presenting different modes of social construction around Jasenovac, from the end of the Second World War to the present, the article proposes a specific reading of Jasenovac as a form of the “past that does not pass.” In this respect, Jasenovac is seen as a continuous reference point for understanding collective losses and group suffering, both past and present, in Serbian and Croatian society. Although historically distanced by seventy years, the events surrounding Jasenovac are still constantly recurring in both political and private, official and unofficial, spheres of life, functioning as a specific symbol around which narratives of ethnic, national, and religious understanding as well as inter-group conflicts are thought and constructed. The role of political and social factors in the construction of frequently incompatible narratives is further underlined by the analysis of selected oral testimonies related to the war in Yugoslavia in 1990s.

БЕЗНАДЕЖНИ САВЕЗ. СРПСКО-ХРВАТСКИ ОДНОСИ И ВОЈВОЂАНСКО ПИТАЊЕ 1848-1868 (3)

У периоду од 1865. до склапања хрватско-мађарске нагодбе, српска политика у Хрватској и Славонији се исказивала у складу са мишљењем и ставовима српских представника на Хрватском сабору који су припадали различитим странкама. Прваци српске либералне политичке мисли настојали су да ускладе национални интерес са страначким и највећи домети су постигнути усвајањем закона који су се односили на равноправност српског и хрватског језика у називу службеног језика као и формалног признања политичке равноправности Срба и Хрвата у Хрватској и Славонији, у години која је претходила склапању нагодбе. Према овом споразуму, склопљеном између делегација Мађарског и Угарског сабора, српска политичка јавност се неједнако односила. Војвођанско питање није стекло у више наврата тражену подршку и разумевање хрватских заступника.

ISOLATION – SANCTION WITHOUT A TRIAL FOR KOSOVO’S ALBANIANS (1981-1989)

After the March 11 th 1981anticommunist demonstrations in Kosovo, an “awakening” of the Yugoslavian nationalism with pro-Serbian character begun. As a whole the state structure and the Serbian political structure demanded the abolition of the SFRY Constitution (1974), which was considered as humiliating. To achieve these plans the Serbian Communist Party, since 1984 engaged all the intellectual, political, media and military mechanisms against Kosovo and its autonomy. Under the direction of the Communist League of Serbia, the Serbian Science Academy issued a pamphlet named Memorandum (1986) according to which the pan Serbian nationalist politics within the entire Yugoslavian area was aligned. After a long propaganda by the media and especially after the orchestrated frame-up of the murder of five soldiers (different nationalities) in the Praqini’s Barracks in Serbia (1987), murder that was attributed to the Kosovan soldier Aziz Kelmendi, an unparalleled offensive of Serbia against Kosovo begun, that led to the violent constitution alteration of March 23 rd 1989. These alterations were followed with demonstration in Kosovo in defense of the 1974 autonomy. From this military police violence there are 32 murdered victims in the records, hundreds injured and wounded and hundreds of Kosovo’s intellectuals ISOLATED. All this violence was orchestrated by the state secret service (UDB), who ordered the arrests and isolations, without an order from the Courts nor of the Prosecution, which in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Law of Yugoslavia had a legal obligation to prosecute, arrest and take the felons in front of the courts. Keywords: Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Isolation,Parqini’s Case, Constitution

Media and topics related to European integration of Serbia for the period 2002-2016

European integration of Serbia is defined as a long-term strategic goal of all Serbian governments, from 2002 to mid-2016, when the paper was written. To achieve this goal, Serbian politicians and experts emphasize the importance of public support and understanding of the EU integration among the Serbian citizens. Theory and practice, however, confirm the fact that it is very difficult to pass the unified message with unchanged meaning about the topic of such a strong public interest such is the topic European integration. Many communicators use various channels to convey the message of the European road, which again, provokes positive and negative attitudes, and even indifference among Serbian public. The views of Serbian citizens regarding joining the EU, monitored and measured through regular semi-annual public opinion polls, have evolved, from percentage of 72% of respondents who support joining the EU at the end of2002 to 41% in July 2016. The goal of this paper is to try to answer some of the questions related to formation and change of the attitudes of citizens of Serbia towards European integration, questions related to communication process and communication actors, in an impartial manner and taking into account theory and official data, analysis of all actors involved in the process of informing the public on European issues, their messages and actions. This paper provides an analysis of the state of the European idea in Serbia. It uses the broader, more complete definition of the media, which encompasses all stages and actors in communication. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the current state of the EU themes in Serbia, covering various aspects of the communication process, communication potentials in Serbia with segmentation of special communication actors and publics, as well as the obstacles and challenges in the context of communication of this topic.

Official Commemoration of the NATO Bombing of Serbia. A Case Study of the Fifteenth Anniversary

AbstractThis article analyses how NATO’s bombing of Serbia has been officially commemorated in that country. Initially, it provides an overview of the commemorations performed between 2000 and 2013, covering both the commemorative practices and policies of leading Serbian politicians and alternative voices. The focus then turns to the fifteenth anniversary of the bombing in 2014. Just as in previous commemorations, there was no central ceremony, but, rather, a series of commemorative events held all over the country. The controversies that these aroused are then discussed, in particular those surrounding the commemoration of Radio Television Serbia’s employees and the spontaneous commemorative acts that took place in Serbian schools.

The crucifixion of the national elite

Since the reaching of three decades of 'SANU Memorandum' affair (1986.), was the occasion to actualize and re-examine the role of the Serbian intelligentsia in political processes, in the early 2017 one more significant date happened - eight decades of appearance of Serbian Political Club (1937). As still today, one unofficial and incomplete document by a group of Serbian academics, on the eve of the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, by which SANU intended to draw the attention of the Yugoslav and Serbian public to the crisis of the common state - is presented as scandalous and conspiratorial project. In the same way is evaluated the reaction of leading Serbian intellectuals on the eve of the dissolution of Kingdom of Yugoslavia - after the assassination of King Aleksandar, the rise of ustashe, the creation of the Croatian 'Banovina' and the fear sparked by the outbreak of World War II. How has the intellectual elite of the Serbian people, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, found itself facing the double the charges for - on one hand - insufficient participation in political life, little or no announcements or critical reasoning, that its members are instead of general and national issues, concerned with particular interests, that they have become non-national, even anti-nationally oriented, while on the other hand - political, media, religious and scientific authorities of the immediate environment accuse them for full management of the political processes, that they shape ideologies, define guidelines and dictate instructions of. 'Greater Serbia' policy?.

Gordy, Eric Guilt, Responsibility, and Denial: The Past at Stake in Post-Milošević Serbia (review)

SEER, 94, 1, JANUARY 2016 190 order to explain medium-term international relations. The geographical scope of his research is also impressive. Given that the Soviet Union had relatively limited contact with the ‘Third World’ during the early years of national liberation covered by Reconstructing the Cold War, it will be interesting to see how Hopf employs social constructivism to account for changes in this relationship amid the massive transformations in developing countries from the 1950s through to 1991 — a period he plans to cover in two subsequent volumes. Although it often seems excessively intent on deconstructing familiar aspects of Soviet history and foreign policy in the overwhelming interest of testing a model, this first instalment is certainly an ambitious undertaking. Department of History Christine Varga-Harris Illinois State University Gordy, Eric. Guilt, Responsibility, and Denial: The Past at Stake in PostMilo šević Serbia. Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2013. xv + 256 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $65.00: £42.50. Eric Gordy’s The Culture of Power in Serbia, published in 1999, was a brilliant examination of Serbian politics and society and how Slobodan Milošević, Serbian leader (under various titles) and architect of war during the 1990s ruled the country, both harnessing political culture and shaping it. This was a book of real importance — for the first time, through Gordy’s insight, how Milošević atomized the country, playing on tropes, pulling up one political figure, pushing another down was revealed. It provided a big clue to that which needed to be done for those seeking to remove this troublesome figure. In October 2000, he was ousted — and later arrested and imprisoned, and eventually transferred to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. It is therefore with real anticipation that Gordy’s new book, tackling the social and cultural context of politics in Serbia since Milošević’s exit, might be approached. Guilt, Responsibility and Denial is very largely a success, proving that Gordy has a fine understanding of Serbian society and culture. However, the book has some weaknesses that might, for example, give it a rough ride in a PhD examination. The treatment of the ICTY and international law contains many mistakes, such as the assertion that, when the ex-leader-cum-war-crimessuspect was arrested in Serbia in 2001, the ICTY indictment against him rested on one incident — an alleged massacre at Račak in Kosovo. Setting aside that his arrest in Serbia was not (formally, at least) in relation to the ICTY indictment, which is only made clear in chapter three, the indictment REVIEWS 191 included the Račak incident in January 1999, but also a string of others across Kosovo, particularly after 24 March and through to the date of the original indictment (22 May 1999 — that indictment was revised to include later dates on 29 June 1999, already two months after Milošević’s arrest). Simply checking the document would have confirmed this. Ironically, given Gordy’s excellent work on Milošević’s elusive and wily rule, always untouchable — a gangster boss who left no finger prints — the key issue in the indictment was superior authority. On 24 March 1999, Belgrade declared a state of war, which, for the first time in a decade of troublemaking, put him de jure, formally, in a position of superior authority, in terms of international criminal law. This was the first time that clear grounds existed to indict him. That was why the indictment was made at that point. Milošević, having ruled and manipulated Serbia in the way Gordy revealed had, until that point, made his first serious error. In addition to these kinds of mistake, Gordy also makes no mention of several sources, or authors, which one might expect to him to have consulted, including the prolific Sabrina Ramet’s dozen-or-so works in and on the period. Attention to these weaknesses should not distort appreciation of Guilt, Responsibility and Denial and the richness of Gordy’s material and analysis when it comes to assessing Serbia itself. This is a fine...