| Details | | Publication Date: | 1995-03-01 | | Series: | Eastern European Studies, No. 1 |
| Size | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 22.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
In this compelling and thorough study, Norman Cigar sets out to prove that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not simply the unintentional result of civil war or the unfortunate by-product of rabid nationalism. Genocide is, he contends, the planned and direct consequence of conscious policy decisions made by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its policies were carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner as part of a broader strategy intended to achieve a defined political objective - the creation of an expanded, ethnically pure Greater Serbia. Using testimony from congressional hearings, policy statements, interviews, and reports from the western and local media, the author describes a sinister policy of victimization that escalated from vilification to threats, then expulsion, torture, and killing. Cigar also takes the international community to task for its reluctance to act decisively and effectively. Genocide in Bosnia provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of "ethnic cleansing" but on the calculated strategy that allowed it to happen. Cigar's book is important reading for anyone interested in the inherent violence of overzealous nationalism - from Rwanda to Afghanistan and anywhere else.
Industry Reviews
Cigar, a professor of national security studies at Quantico, claims that the crime of genocide in Bosnia has been committed as a "rational policy" in pursuit of a greater Serbia "by the Serbian establishment in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina." The author's command of most published sources enables him to depict systematic "ethnic cleansing" throughout the region; the persistent "denial" of the policy by the international community, among others; and the ineffectual consequences of Western involvement. There is little doubt that genocide has taken place in Bosnia, although the question of its origins and those responsible is not so obvious. Too, a work concerning so heinous and infrequent a crime should offer comparison with episodes elsewhere, as well as more attention to the United Nations-sponsored war crimes tribunal for Bosnia. Although lacking Cigar's detail, David Rieff's Slaughterhouse (LJ 2/15/95) discusses much of the same events with greater balance. Libraries with strong Balkan collections should acquire both. Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Adams
Cigar, professor at the US Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting in Quantico, VA and former Pentagon analyst, argues that genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina is the direct consequence of policy decisions by Serbian leadership to establish an ethnically homogeneous "Greater Serbia," and critiques the international community's reluctance to act decisively. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Edgerton
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