Mila Dragojevic
Mila Dragojević is Professor of Politics at the University of the South. In her most recent book, Amoral Communities: Collective Crimes in Time of War (Cornell University Press 2019), she examined conditions conducive to wartime violence against civilians. The book’s Croatian translation was published in 2020 with the Zagreb-based academic publisher Srednja Europa. This research project represented an attempt to understand how it was possible for a peaceful community to transform itself, temporarily, into a violent place where a human life was valued less than a person’s identity. The book was based on in-depth interviews conducted in Croatia, Uganda, and Guatemala, three countries with vastly different histories and cultures, but with comparable wartime patterns of violence. She showed how amoral communities – or places where wartime violence against civilians was both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities – were created when the complementary processes of the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders connected a cultural identity, such as ethnicity, with a political goal.
In her previous book, The Politics of Social Ties: Immigrants in an Ethnic Homeland (Ashgate 2014/ Routledge 2016), as well as in several articles, she examined the processes of the formation of new social identities defined by migration that took place during the wars in the 1990s on the territory of former Yugoslavia. In this body of research, she was interested in understanding how former refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who predominantly identified as ethnic Serbs, incorporated socially, economically, and politically in Serbia. In the book, she focused particularly on the question of why most of the former refugees in Serbia supported the far-right nationalist political options. Based on the original mass survey and in-depth interviews, as well as a yearlong fieldwork in Serbia, she concluded that one of the critical factors was the degree of social incorporation that individuals attained.
In her previous book, The Politics of Social Ties: Immigrants in an Ethnic Homeland (Ashgate 2014/ Routledge 2016), as well as in several articles, she examined the processes of the formation of new social identities defined by migration that took place during the wars in the 1990s on the territory of former Yugoslavia. In this body of research, she was interested in understanding how former refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, who predominantly identified as ethnic Serbs, incorporated socially, economically, and politically in Serbia. In the book, she focused particularly on the question of why most of the former refugees in Serbia supported the far-right nationalist political options. Based on the original mass survey and in-depth interviews, as well as a yearlong fieldwork in Serbia, she concluded that one of the critical factors was the degree of social incorporation that individuals attained.
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Books by Mila Dragojevic
Kako je moguće da se sigurna i mirna zajednica privremeno pretvori u okrutno mjesto gdje se etnička ili rasna pripadnost neke osobe vrednuje više od ljudskoga života kao takvoga? Autorica pristupa ovom pitanju kroz intervjue iz tri zemlje koje se razlikuju po svojoj povijesti, ali su komparativne po nasilju nad civilima tijekom ratova – Hrvatske, Ugande i Gvatemale. Razgovorima s ljudima koji imaju osobna iskustva u ratu doprinosi ne samo glas razuma, nego i autentičnost, dubina i emocije. Autorica se nadovezuje na postojeću literaturu i zaključuje da nasilje nad civilima temeljeno na njihovu etničkom ili vjerskom identitetu ukazuje na određenu političku strategiju.
Međutim, zašto se ciljano nasilje nad civilima tijekom ratova događa samo u nekim zajednicama? Razlog je tomu što je proces stvaranja političkih etniciteta, ili povezivanja političkog cilja s etničkim, religijskim ili rasnim identitetom, pokrenut zahvaljujući dvama povezanim mehanizmima: isključivanju umjerenih ljudi i proizvodnji granica. Isključivanje umjerenih se čini prijetnjama, selektivnim ciljanim nasiljem,društvenim ostracizmom i različitim oblicima nadziranja vlastite skupine. Proizvodnja granica obično započinje postavljanjem barikada, kontrolnih točaka ili prepreka na cestama, a kasnije se očituje i u obliku ratnih crta razdvajanja s ciljem kontrole civilnog stanovništva. Kao rezultat toga, u tim zajednicama, pojedinci nisu u mogućnosti bez straha djelovati u skladu sa svojim vrijednostima ako te vrijednosti odstupaju od onih koje su im nametane putem procesa etnizacije.
Upravo su u takvim zajednicama za vrijeme rata stvoreni uvjeti u kojima je nasilje nad civilima vršeno prije svega kao politička, a ne vojna strategija jer se ono događa nakon što je postignuta vojna kontrola nad teritorijem i kad civili koji su ranije kategorizirani kao prijetnja više ne predstavljaju realnu i objektivnu opasnost. Razumijevanje mehanizama koji stvaraju pogodne uvjete za nasilje nad civilima nam ukazuje da se ono može spriječiti, a jedan od načina jest da države i lokalne samouprave štite slobodu kretanja i života neovisno o etničkom, vjerskom, rasnom ili drugom identitetu.
In Amoral Communities, Mila Dragojević examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. She identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal.
Dragojević augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. The communities on which she focuses are Croatia in the 1990s and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case Dragojević considers how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. Reporting on the varying wartime experiences of individuals, she adds depth, emotion, and objectivity to the historical and socioeconomic conditions that shaped each conflict.
Furthermore, as Amoral Communities describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals' freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, Dragojević finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.
After forced migration to a country where immigrants form an ethnic majority, why do some individuals support exclusivist and nationalist political parties while others do not? Based on extensive interviews and an original survey of 1200 local Serbs and ethnic Serbian refugees fleeing violent conflict in Bosnia and Croatia, this book adds the dimension of ethnic identity to the analysis of individual political behavior, without treating ethnic groups as homogeneous social categories. It adds valuable insight to the existing literature on political behavior by emphasizing the role of social ties among individuals.
Papers by Mila Dragojevic
Book Reviews by Mila Dragojevic
Kako je moguće da se sigurna i mirna zajednica privremeno pretvori u okrutno mjesto gdje se etnička ili rasna pripadnost neke osobe vrednuje više od ljudskoga života kao takvoga? Autorica pristupa ovom pitanju kroz intervjue iz tri zemlje koje se razlikuju po svojoj povijesti, ali su komparativne po nasilju nad civilima tijekom ratova – Hrvatske, Ugande i Gvatemale. Razgovorima s ljudima koji imaju osobna iskustva u ratu doprinosi ne samo glas razuma, nego i autentičnost, dubina i emocije. Autorica se nadovezuje na postojeću literaturu i zaključuje da nasilje nad civilima temeljeno na njihovu etničkom ili vjerskom identitetu ukazuje na određenu političku strategiju.
Međutim, zašto se ciljano nasilje nad civilima tijekom ratova događa samo u nekim zajednicama? Razlog je tomu što je proces stvaranja političkih etniciteta, ili povezivanja političkog cilja s etničkim, religijskim ili rasnim identitetom, pokrenut zahvaljujući dvama povezanim mehanizmima: isključivanju umjerenih ljudi i proizvodnji granica. Isključivanje umjerenih se čini prijetnjama, selektivnim ciljanim nasiljem,društvenim ostracizmom i različitim oblicima nadziranja vlastite skupine. Proizvodnja granica obično započinje postavljanjem barikada, kontrolnih točaka ili prepreka na cestama, a kasnije se očituje i u obliku ratnih crta razdvajanja s ciljem kontrole civilnog stanovništva. Kao rezultat toga, u tim zajednicama, pojedinci nisu u mogućnosti bez straha djelovati u skladu sa svojim vrijednostima ako te vrijednosti odstupaju od onih koje su im nametane putem procesa etnizacije.
Upravo su u takvim zajednicama za vrijeme rata stvoreni uvjeti u kojima je nasilje nad civilima vršeno prije svega kao politička, a ne vojna strategija jer se ono događa nakon što je postignuta vojna kontrola nad teritorijem i kad civili koji su ranije kategorizirani kao prijetnja više ne predstavljaju realnu i objektivnu opasnost. Razumijevanje mehanizama koji stvaraju pogodne uvjete za nasilje nad civilima nam ukazuje da se ono može spriječiti, a jedan od načina jest da države i lokalne samouprave štite slobodu kretanja i života neovisno o etničkom, vjerskom, rasnom ili drugom identitetu.
In Amoral Communities, Mila Dragojević examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. She identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal.
Dragojević augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. The communities on which she focuses are Croatia in the 1990s and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case Dragojević considers how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. Reporting on the varying wartime experiences of individuals, she adds depth, emotion, and objectivity to the historical and socioeconomic conditions that shaped each conflict.
Furthermore, as Amoral Communities describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals' freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, Dragojević finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.
After forced migration to a country where immigrants form an ethnic majority, why do some individuals support exclusivist and nationalist political parties while others do not? Based on extensive interviews and an original survey of 1200 local Serbs and ethnic Serbian refugees fleeing violent conflict in Bosnia and Croatia, this book adds the dimension of ethnic identity to the analysis of individual political behavior, without treating ethnic groups as homogeneous social categories. It adds valuable insight to the existing literature on political behavior by emphasizing the role of social ties among individuals.