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I mentioned in a review I wrote for HABSBURG a week ago (on Branislav
Anzulovic's _Heavenly Serbia_) that as the war in Kosovo continues,
commentators have begun to consider the future of Serbia, and more
specifically the need for some type of rehabilitation of Serbia to
occur
-- perhaps similar to the denazification process implemented in Germany
following the Second World War. Since that review appeared, Daniel
Jonah
Goldhagen himself has written that "as long as Milosevic is in power,
as
long as Serbs continue to harbor the burning hatred of ethnic nationalism
and are afflicted with delusions about themselves, their neighbors,
and
the rest of the world..., there will be no peace in the Balkans, and
the
danger of renewed 'ethnic cleansing' will continue." [1]
Goldhagen goes on
to suggest that Serbia be placed in "receivership" in the form of a
benign
occupation that would help ordinary Serbs, "the rest of the criminals'
supporters, composing a large percentage of the Serbian people," to
"comprehend their errors and [be] rehabilitated." As I wrote last week,
I
find Goldhagen's category of the "willing executioner" to be problematic
in the German case and even more so in the Serbian one. But proposals
for
changing Serbian attitudes as a prerequisite for peace in the western
Balkans are now accumulating. [2]
Certainly if any "rehabilitation" project that focuses on ridding Serbs
of
their "burning hatred" and "delusions" is to succeed, one place to
begin
will have to be the Kosovo mythology. In his excellent review
of Noel
Malcolm's _Kosovo: A Short History_, Thomas Emmert notes that Malcolm
asserts that the Kosovo myth "as the foundation of modern Serbian
nationalism" is a product of the conscious policy of the Serbian state
in
the late nineteenth century. Emmert believes that the pervasiveness
of
the myth is less the product of state action and more profoundly rooted
in
the Serbian past than Malcolm would have us believe. I must admit
that
before reading this reiew, I passively nodded in agreement as I read
Malcolm's rendition. Emmert concludes that Malcolm must believe
"that it
will be easier for Serbs to think more critically about this myth if
they
can be convinced that it is something that has been created for them
in
the nineteenth century." I can not speak for Noel Malcolm, but I shared
his view until reading this review, which has reminded me that it may
be a
bit presumptuous to expect Serbs to critically examine their own cultural
foundations. But Goldhagen (and others) are now on the record
as
demanding not just that Serbs examine themselves, but that Serbs be
compelled to do so by outsiders. As he notes, a similar project
was
accomplished in Germany and Japan after the Second World War.
A number of questions must be answered before such a project could even
be
initiated. Are Serbs "Milosevic's willing executioners," possessed
by a
shared desire to kill all Albanians (or more sweepingly Muslims and
even
Croats) in their midst? Or is Serbia a criminal society in which
a
passive majority stands by, unknowing, while Milosevic's hired hands
accomplish the dirty work? And, even if desirable, would it be
possible
to re-educate Serbs? If some sort of rehab program is initiated,
will it
focus on the limited task of nurturing Serbian "democrats," or will
it
embark upon the more comprehensive chore of ripping out and replacing
the
entire foundation of Serbian culture, the Kosovo myth?
These (and certainly others) are all questions that ought to be answered
before we contemplate a "de-nationalization" program for Serbia.
Nick Miller
Boise State University
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[1] Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, "A New Serbia," in _The
New Republic_ (May 17,
1999). This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenewrepublic.com/magazines/tnr/current/goldhagen051799.html.
[2] HABSBURG Co-Editor Charlie Ingrao contributed one
proposal to the _Los
Angeles Times_: "It Will Take More Than Bombs to Bring Stability" (April
1
2, 1999).