SSEESGS61: Politics of Southeast Europe

SSEES-UCL
Instructor:
Tuesdays 2-4)
Meeting time:

2016-2017, Term 1
Dr Eric Gordy (e.gordy@ucl.ac.uk; Office SSEES room 323,
Mondays 4-6 PM, Gordon Square 16-18 G06

Course description
The seminar examines politics in the states of Southeast Europe since the
demise of Communist regimes in the region. Particular attention will be given to
the wars of Yugoslav succession and the regimes that participated in them.
Topics may also include, but are not limited to: international administrations in
Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, international and domestic initiatives to
promote political and institutional reform, war crimes and transitional justice,
organised crime and corruption, Processes of EU accession and conditionality,
and initiatives for reconciliation and regional cooperation. A major emphasis of
the material is on the relation of political change to economic and social factors.
Much of the emphasis of the seminar will be on using analyses from history,
sociology, anthropology and political science to understand ongoing phenomena
and new developments in the region, not all of which can be anticipated at the
beginning of the term. In that spirit, students are expected to maintain an
awareness of events in the region, both by following news media and by their
own explorations of the literature. In that sense, the required reading may be
thought of only as a sampling, and students will be expected to read more
broadly. For the same reasons, readings may be changed as the course
progresses.
Course objectives:
By the end of the course, students will have gained knowledge and
understanding allowing them to:
1. Evaluate policies both in the region and directed toward the region of
Southeast Europe
2. Analyse contemporary issues and controversies involving Southeast
Europe
3. Apply theoretical models from social science to understanding
developments in Southeast Europe
4. Address scholarly controversies involving the wars of Yugoslav succession
in the 1990s, the regimes that participated in them, their causes and
consequences
Along the way, it is also expected that students will develop their skills in
working with academic literature, in developing critical assessments of research,
and in organising and presenting their work in an engaging manner.
Teaching and learning methods

There will be a two-hour session each week. In the first hour of each weeks
session, one or two students will carry responsibility for presenting the material
and for leading discussion. This participation will account for the formative
assessment portion of the course. In the second hour, the course leader will
present material explaining and contextualising the themes for the week, and
the rest of the time will be devoted to discussion in seminar format
The reading load is generally heavy this seminar offers material that is both
empirically intensive and theoretically complex, with the goal of preparing
seminar members for future research. It is absolutely essential that seminar
members remain current with the readings, and also keep informed about events
in the region. All readings should be available through the SSEES library and
most are also available in electronic format at the seminars online home at the
UCL Moodle site. The online site is also the general source for recent documents
and announcements.
Assessment
Assessment will be 100% by assessed medium length essay (3000 words). Essay
topics should be chosen from the weekly topics listed in the syllabus. Students
should consult with the course leader if they wish to refine their essay topics.
The deadline for the essay is MONDAY, 23 January 2017.

Course Schedule

Week 1 (3 October): Introduction and overview: What is Southeast

Europe?

There is no required reading for Week 1

Week 2 (10 October): Yugoslavia, decline, fall and legacies

Key readings

Bieber, F., Galija, A. and Archer, R. (eds.), Debating the end of Yugoslavia.
Ashgate, 2014. Articles by: Vladisavljevi, Flere, Haug, Spaskovska.

Additional reading

Ana Devi, The limits of ethno-national analysis, International journal of

politics, culture and society 6:1 (1992), pp. 133-138.

Dejan Djoki (ed.), Yugoslavism: Histories of a failed idea 1918-1992.

London: Hurst, 2002.

Jasna Dragovi-Soso, Why did Yugoslavia disintegrate? An overview of

contending explanations, in L Cohen and J Dragovi-Soso (eds.), State
collapse in Southeastern Europe: New perspectives on Yugoslavias
disintegration. Purdue UP, 2007, pp. 1-39.

Dejan Jovi, The disintegration of Yugoslavia: A critical review of

explanatory approaches, European Journal of Social Theory 4 (2001), pp.
101-120.

Week 3 (17 October): Nationalism, nationalism, anti-nationalism and

beyond nationalism
Key readings

Bieber, Florian. The construction of national identity and its challenges in

post-Yugoslav censuses. Social science quarterly 96:3 (2015), 873-903

Hromadi, Azra. On not dating just anybody: The politics and poetics of
flirting in a postwar city. Anthropological quarterly 88:4 (2015), 881-906

Zaharijevi, Adriana. Dissidents, disloyal citizens and partisans of

emancipation: Feminist citizenship in Yugoslavia and post-Yugoslav
spaces. Womens studies international forum 49 (2015) 93-100

Additional reading

Duncan Bell, Mythscapes: Memory, mythology and national identity,

British Journal of Sociology 54:1 (2003), pp. 63-81.

Dominic Boyer and Claudio Lomnitz, Intellectuals and nationalism:

Anthropological engagements, Annual review of Anthropology 34 (2005),
pp. 105-120.

Rogers Brubaker and Frederick Cooper, Beyond identity, Theory and

Society 29:1 (2000), pp. 1-47.

Nadia Kaneva and Delia Popescu, National identity lite: Nation branding in
post-Communist Romania and Bulgaria, International journal of cultural
studies 14:2 (2011), pp. 191-207.

Nenad Mievi, Close strangers: Nationalism, proximity and

cosmopolitanism, Studies in East European Thought 51:2 (1999), pp. 109125.

Erik Ringmar, Nationalism: The idiocy of intimacy, British Journal of

Sociology 49:4 (1998), pp. 534-549.

Jeff Spinner-Halev, Democracy, solidarity and post-nationalism, Political

studies 56:3 (2008), pp. 604-628.

Week 4 (24 October): Violence

Key readings

Halilovich, Hariz. Reclaiming erased lives: archives, records and

memories in post-war Bosnia and the Bosnian diaspora. Archival studies
14:3 (2014) 231-247

Milievi, Aleksandra. "Joining the war: Masculism, nationalism and war

participation in the Balkans war of secession, 1991-1995", Nationalities
papers, 34:3 (2006) 265-287

Gerald Schneider, Margit Bussmann and Constantin Ruhe. The dynamics

of mass killings: Testing time-series models of one-sided violence in the
Bosnian civil war. International interactions 38:4 (2012) 443-461

Additional reading

Daniel Chirot and Clark McCauley, Why not kill them all?: The logic and
prevention of mass political murder (Princeton UP, 2006)

Joel Halpern and David Kideckel (eds), Neighbors at war: Anthropological

perspectives on Yugoslav ethnicity, culture and history (Penn State UP,
2000)

Anthony Oberschall, The manipulation of ethnicity: from ethnic

cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia, Ethnic and racial studies,
23:6 (2002), pp. 982-2001.

Ervin Staub, The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group
violence (Cambridge UP, 1992)

Benjamin Valentino, Final solutions: Mass killing and genocide in the

twentieth century (Cornell UP, 2005)

Week 5 (31 October): Post-conflict retrenchment and reconciliation

Key readings

Hroneov, Jessie. Might makes right: War-related payments in Bosnia

and Herzegovina. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2016) 10:3,
339-360

Obradovi-Wochnik, Jelena. Knowledge, acknowledgement and denial in

Serbia's responses to the Srebrenica massacre. Journal of contemporary
European studies 17:1 (2009) 61-74

Touquet, Heleen and Peter Vermeersch. Changing frames of

reconciliation: The politics of peace-building in the former Yugoslavia.
East European politics and societies 30:1 (2016) 55-73

Additional reading

Gary J Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes
Tribunals. (Princeton University Press, 2001)

Stanley Cohen, States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering

(Polity Press, 2001)

Eric Gordy, Guilt, responsibility and denial: The past at stake in postMiloevi Serbia. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), chapters 2, 4
and 6.

Patrice McMahon and David Forsythe. The ICTY's Impact on Serbia:

Judicial romanticism meets Network Politics. Human Rights Quarterly 30:
2 (2008)

Mark Osiel. Making Sense of Mass Atrocity (Cambridge University Press,

2009)

Victor Peskin. Beyond Victor's Justice? The Challenge of Prosecuting the

Winners at the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia
and Rwanda. Journal of Human Rights 4:2 (2005)

Marlene Spoerri, Justice Imposed?: How policies of conditionality affect

transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia. Europe-Asia Studies 63:10
(2011), 1827-1851

No meeting 7 November (reading week)

Week 6 (14 November): Politics in a post-communist key: Parties and

power since 1990
Key readings

Casal Bertoa, Fernando and Dane Taleski. Regulating party politics in the
Western Balkans: the legal sources of party system development in
Macedonia. Democratization 23:3 (2016) 545-567

Dolenec, Danijela. Democratization in the Balkans: The limits of elitedriven reform. Taiwan Journal of Democracy 12:1 (2016) 125-144

Stanojevi, Dragan et al. Clientelistic relation between political elite and

entrepreneurs in Serbia. Sociologija LVIII:2 (2016) 220-237

Additional reading

Bieber, Florian and Kiel, Soren (2009), 'Power-Sharing Revisited: Lessons

Learned in the Balkans?', Review of Central and East European Law 34
(2009) 337-360

Carothers, Thomas (2006), 'The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion',

85 Foreign Affairs 85 (55-68)

Konitzer, Andrew and Gruji, Jelena (2009) 'An Electorate Adrift: Refugees
and Elections in post- Miloevi Serbia', Europe-Asia Studies, 61: 5, 857
874

Larisa Kurtovi, What is a nationalist?: Thoughts on the question from

Bosnia-Herzegovina. Anthropology of East Europe Review 29:2 (2011),
242-253

ore Stefanovi, The path to Weimar Serbia?: Explaining the resurgence

of the Serbian far right after the fall of Miloevi. Ethnic and Racial
Studies 31:7 (2008), 1195-1221

Soberg, Marius (2008), 'The Quest for Institutional Reform in Bosnia and
Herzegovina', East European Politics and Societies 2008; 22; 714

Zanotti, Laura (2008), 'Normalizing democracy and human rights:

discipline, resistance and carceralization in Croatias Euro-Atlantic
integration', Journal of International Relations and Development, 2008, 11,
(222250)

Week 7 (21 November): Society in a post-communist key: Neoliberals

and new classes
Key readings

Hromadi, Azra. Dissatisfied citizens: Ethnonational governance,

teachers strike and professional solidarity in Mostar, Bosnia
Herzegovina. European Politics and Society 16:3 (2015) 429-446

Majstorovi, Danijela. (Un)doing feminism in (post)-Yugoslav media

space. Feminist Media Studies (2016) 1-13

Pula, Besnik. Effects of the European financial and economic crisis in

Kosovo and the Balkans: modes of integration and transmission belts of
crisis in the superperiphery. East European Politics 30:4 (2014) 507-525

Additional reading

Bell, Marissa. Croatias neoliberal trajectory: The applicability of

variegated neoliberalism in the Croatian postsocialist context. Middle
States Geographer 45 (2012) 1-9

Azra Hromadi (2008), Discourses of integration and practices of

reunification at the Mostar Gymnasium, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Comparative Education Review 52:4 (541-563)

Ines Prica, In search of the post-socialist subject. Narodna umjetnost

44:1 (2007) 163-186

Week 8 (28 November): What does Europe do?

Key readings

Belloni, Roberto. The European Union blowback? Euroscepticism and its

consequences in the Western Balkans. Journal of Intervention and
Statebuilding (2016) 1-18

Borzel, Tanja. Building member states: How the EU promotes political

change in its new members, accession candidates, and Eastern
neighbours. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations 8:1 ( 2016)
76112

Wunsch, Natasha. Beyond instrumentalisation: NGO monitoring coalitions

in Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. East European Politics 31:4 (2015)
452-467

Additional reading

Mitchell Orenstein. Geopolitics of a divided Europe. East European

Politics Societies and Cultures 29:2 (2015) 531-540

Week 9 (5 December): Political culture between conformity, rebellion

and nostalgia
Key readings

Arsenijevi, Damir (ed.). Unbribable Bosnia and Herzegovina: The fight for
the commons. Nomos (2014).Articles by Jansen, Hajdarpai, Gordy and
Mujanovi.

Musi, Goran. Between Facebook and the picket line: Street protests,
labour strikes and the New Left in the Balkans. Journal of Contemporary
Central and Eastern Europe 21:2-3 (2013) 321-335

Additional reading

Grupa 22, The struggle for the commons in the Balkans. Working paper
(2013)

Tijana Moraa. Between defiance and compliance: A new civil society in

the post-Yugoslav space? OBC occasional paper 2 (2016)

Igor tiks and Sreko Horvat (eds.), Welcome to the desert of postsocialism: Radical politics after Yugoslavia. Verso (2015)

Week 10 (12 December): Summary and synthesis

There is no required reading for Week 10