Syllabi

PS 110-301 THE BALKANS: PAST AND PRESENT Instructor: Dr. Bob Zunjic T Th 4:30-6 pm Modern Languages College House (Penn) 1998

Course Description:

This residentially based course is designed to provide basic knowledge about the geography, history, ethnicity and cultural complexity of the Balkan peninsula. Its objective is to enable students to better understand the origins of Balkan post-communist nationalism and the nature of the ongoing political crisis. The course combines three interrelated approaches: a) a historical survey of the Balkan region explaining the rise of all Balkan national states (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Yugoslavia = Serbia and Montenegro) and various ethnic nationalities, b) sociological and economical analysis of the whole region stressing potential resources and weak points in respective countries, and c) geo-strategic discussion of the present political situation focusing on the causes and consequences of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. The underlying idea of the course is to find out what are the implications of Balkan inter-ethnic conflicts for the new world order and international security.

Format: Introductory lectures, discussions and short presentations by students.

Requirements: active participation in sections, oral presentation based on the course reading, a paper (about fifteen pages long), and home essay on a chosen topic related to the Balkans.

Distribution II: May count as a distributional course in Political Sciences and History.

Books on reserve in Rosengarten:

F. W. Carter, H. T. Norris, eds. The Changing Shape of the Balkans, Boulder 1996.
D. Hall, D. Danta, eds. Reconstructing The Balkans, Chichester 1996.
P. Latawski, ed. Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe, New York 1995.
R.G.C. Thomas, H. R. Friman, eds. The South Slav Conflict, New York 1996.

Lecture Topics and Reading Assignments:

Week 1: Introduction: The Concept of the Balkans

Jan. 13: Geographical, Cultural and Political Meaning of the Balkans
Jan. 15: A Historical Survey of the Balkans from the Beginnings to the Present

Reading: D. Hall and D. Danta, "Perception and Realities"; "Contemporary Balkan Question: the Geographic and Historic Context" in: D. Hall, D. Danta, eds. Reconstructing the Balkans, Chichester 1996, chs. 1 and 2, pp. 3-34.

Additional Reading: M. Todorova, Inventing the Balkans, Oxford 1997, pp. 3-138.
T. Stojanovich, Balkan Worlds, the First and Last Europe, Introduction and ch. 1, New York 1994, pp. 3-46.

Week 2: Byzantinism and Its Heritage

Jan. 20: Byzantium and Its Balkan Commonwealth
Jan. 22: Orthodoxy: Its Tenets and their Relation toward Modernization

Reading: D. Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth,
chs. 7-9, pp. 202-223, 237-260, 272-321.
A. Golitzin, "Echoes of Another Christendom", in R.G.C. Thomas, H.R. Friman, The South Slav Conflict, New York 1996, ch. 3, pp. 51-77.

Additional Reading: E. Benz, "Greatness and Weakness of Orthodoxy", in: The Eastern Orthodox Church, Chicago 1963, ch. 14, pp. 206-214; P. Kitromilides, "‘Imagined Communities’ and the Origins of the National Question in the Balkans"; in P. Kitromilides, Enlightenment, Nationalism, Orthodoxy: Studies in the Culture and Political Thought of South-Eastern Europe, Hampshire 1994, chs. 11, 12.

Week 3: The Turks on the Balkans

Jan. 27: Ottoman Rule over the Balkans
Jan. 29: Islamic Heritage in the Balkans

Reading: G. Joffe, "Muslims in the Balkans", in: F.W. Carter, H.T. Norris, The Changing Shape of the Balkans, Boulder 1966, ch. 6, pp. 81-96.
M. Todorova, "Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans", in G.G. Ozdogan, K. Saybasih, eds. Balkans, A Mirror of the New International Order, Istambul 1995, pp. 55-74.

Additional Reading: G. Castellan, History of the Balkans from Muhammed the Conqueror to Stalin, Boulder 1992, chs. 2-5, pp. 40-144.
T. Bora, "Turkish National Identity, Turskish Nationalism, and the Balkan Question", in G.G. Ozdogan, K. Saybasih, Balkans, A Mirror of the New International Order, Istambul 1995, pp. 101-120.

Week 4: The Rise of Balkan Nationalism

Feb. 3: Creation of the Balkan National States
Feb. 5: History as/and National Identity

Reading: B. Jelavich, "The First National Revolutions", in History of the Balkans, vol. I, Cambridge 1984, ch. 4, pp. 171- 234.
R.G.C. Thomas, "History, Religion, and National Identity", in R.G.C. Thomas, R. Friman, eds.
The South Slav Conflict, History, Religion, Ethnicity and Nationalism, New York 1996,
ch. 1, pp. 11-42.

Additional Reading:

G.Kastellan, History of the Balkans from Muhammed the Conqueror to Stalin, Boulder 1992,
chs. 10-12, pp. 227-332.
E. Gellner, Nation and Nationalism, Ithaca 1983, chs. 1, 4, 5, 7, pp. 1-7, 39-62, 88-109.

Week 5: Balkan Nomads and Settlers

Feb. 10: The Latin Remnants: Valachians and Aromuns
Feb. 12: The Crossroads of Diaspora: The Jews in the Balkans

Reading: T. Winnitrieth, Shattered Eagles, Balkan Fragments, London 1995, (Vlachs) chs. 2-5, pp. 27-81.
D.Elazar, H.P. Frenkenreich, B. Hazzan, A.W.Lieberless, The Balkan Jewish Communities, Lanham 1984.

Additional reading: N. Stavroulakis, The Jews of Greece. An Essay, Athens 1990.
M. Noel, "The Jews and the Gypsies of Bosnia", in A Short History of Bosnia, New York 1994, ch. 9, pp. 107-118.

Week 6: The Balkans between Tradition and Modernization

Feb. 17: Patriarchal Cultural Patterns and Tribal Mentality
Feb. 19: Balkan Society and Economy

Reading: T. Stojanovich, "Technology"; "Society"; "Economics", in Balkan Worlds, the First and Last Europe, chs. 3-5, pp. 69-234.
N. V. Gianaris, "Economic Growth, Foreign Trade, and International Relations", in Geopolitical and Economic Changes in the Balkan Countries, Westport 1996, ch. 7, 127-156.

Additional reading: R. Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts: A Journey through History, New York 1966, ch. 1 "Croatia:‘just so they could go Heaven’"), ch. 2 ("Old Serbia and Albania: ‘Balkan West Bank’"), pp. 3-49.
M. Zarkovic Bookman, "Nationalist Bankruptcy in the Balkans"; "Manifestations of the Balkan Economic Crisis", in Economic Decline and Nationalism in the Balkans, New York 1994, chs. 1, 3, pp. 1-34; 73-87.

Week 7: Balkan Nationalism under Communism

Feb. 24: Bulgaria and Romania
Feb. 26: Albania and Yugoslavia

Reading: D. M. Perry, "Bulgarian Nationalism: Permutations on the Past", in P. Latowski, ed. Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe, New York 1995, ch. 4, pp. 41-65.
J. R. Lampe, "Nationalism in Former Yugoslavia", in P. Latawski, ed. Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe, New York 1995, ch. 9, pp. 143-164.

Additional reading: R. Heyden, "Constitutional Nationalism in the Formerly Yugoslav Republics", Slavic Review 51, 4/1992, pp. 654-673.
M. E. Fischer, "Politics, Nationalism, and Development in Romania", in G. Augustinos, ed. Diverse Paths to Modernity in Southeastern Europe, New York 1991, pp. 135-168.

Week 8: Adversity within Western Alliance

Mar. 3: Modern Greece
Mar. 5: Turkey into Europe

Reading: G. Oszen, "Continuity and Change in Turkish Foreign Policy in the Balkans", G.G. Ozdogan, K. Saybasili, Balkans, A Mirror of the New International Order, Istambul 1995, ch. 19, pp. 281-294.
Th. A. Couloumbis, I. Prodromos, "Greek Foreign Policy Priorities for the 1990s", in K. Featherstone, K. Infantis, eds. Greece in a changing Europe: between European Integration and Balkan Disintegration, Manchester 1996, pp. 160-175.

Additional reading: N. Gianaris, Geopolitical and Economic Changes in the Balkan Countries, Westport 1996, chs. 3-4 (Hellas and Greece) pp. 35-83.
D. Sezer, "The Strategic Matrix of the SEM: A Turkish Perspective", in D. Constas, ed. The Greek-Turkish Conflict in the 1990s, New York 1991, pp. 109-125.

Week 9:

Mar. 10: Spring Break
Mar. 12: Spring Break

Week 10: The Collapse of Communism and Reawakening of

Democracy with Ethno-Nationalism

Mar. 17: Bulgaria and Romania
Mar. 19: Yugoslavia and Albania: Kosovo

Reading:

M. Rady, "Nationalism and Nationality in Romania", in P. Latawski, ed. Contemporary Nationalism in East Central Europe, New York 1995, ch. 8, pp. 127-142.
Z. Golubovic, "The Emergence of Exclusive Nationalism versus Democratic Processes in Post-Communist Yugoslavia", in: R. Nakarada, ed. Europe and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia, Belgrade 1994, pp. 161-172.

Additional reading: L. Sekelj, "Kosovo and the Crisis", in: Yugoslavia: The Process of Dissintegration, Boulder 1993, ch. 4, pp. 189-205.
Sh. Maliqi, "The Albanian Movement in Kosova", in D.A. Dyker, I. Vejvoda, eds. Yugoslavia and After. A Study in Fragmentation, Despair and Rebirth, London 1996, ch. 8, pp. 138-154.

Week 11: The Break-up of Yugoslavia

Mar. 31: The Causes of the Third Balkan War and its Nature
Apr. 2: The Dayton Agreement and the Consequences

Reading:

S. Woodward, "The Dynamics of Disintegration and Nationalist War"; "Conclusion", Balkan Tragedy, Chaos and Dissolution After the Cold War, Washington 1995, chs. 10-11, pp.
L. Cohen, "Yugoslavia’s Failure and the Changing Balkan Mosaic", in The Broken Bonds. Yugoslavia’s Disintegration and Balkan Politics in Transition, Boulder 1995, ch. 10, pp. 327-374.

Additional reading: P. Moyzes, "Civil War or War between Countries", in Yugoslavian Inferno, New York 1994, ch. 6, pp. 87-124.
B. Denich, "Postcript: A Terrible Peace to End a Terrible War", in Ethnic Nationalism. The Tragic Death of Yugoslavia, Minneapolis 1996, pp. 205-232.
J.B. Allcock, M. Milivojevic, J. J. Harton, eds., Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia, An Encyclopedia, Denver, Santa Barbara 1998 (very informative lexicon accompanied with good bibliography: pp. 345-350).

Week 12: Building States from Nations

Apr. 7: Independent Slovenia
Apr. 9: Croatia rediviva

Reading:

P. Vodopivec, "Seven decades of unconfronted Incongruities: The Slovenes and Yugoslavia", in J. Benederly, E. Kraft, eds. Independent Slovenia, Origins, Movements, Prospects, London 1994, ch. 2, pp. 23-46.
D. Plestina, "Democracy and nationalism in Croatia: The First Three Years", in S. P. Ramet, Lj. Adamovic, eds. Beyond Yugoslavia, Politics, Economics and Culture in a Shattered Community, Boulder 1996, ch. 6, pp. 123-154.

Additional reading: S. Woodward, "The Right to National Self-Determination", "War: Building States from Nations", in The Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War, Washington 1995, chs. 7-8, pp. 199-272.
R.G.C. Thomas, "Nations, States, and War", ch. 9, in: R.G.C. Thomas, H.R. Friman, The South Slav Conflict, New York 1966, pp. 191-227.

Week 13: Constructing Identity

Apr. 14: Bosniaks: Slavic Moslems from Bosnia
Apr. 16: An Ethnic Paradox: Slavic Macedonians

Reading: X. Bougarel, "Bosnia and Hercegovina - State and Communitarianism", in D. A. Dyker, I. Vejvoda, eds. Yugoslavia and After, Lonodn 1996, ch. 6, pp. 87-115.
H. Poulton, Who Are the Macedonians? London 1995, ch. 9, pp. 172-210.

Additional reading: F. Friedman, The Bosnian Moslems: Denial of Nation, 1996.
L. Danforth, Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World, Princeton 1995.

Week 14: Reconstructing the Balkans

Apr. 21: New Boundaries and Minorities
Apr. 23: International Security and the Balkans

Reading: H. Poulton, "Minorities and Boundaries in the Balkans", in F.W. Carter, H.T. Norris, eds. The Changing Shape of the Balkans, Boulder 1996, ch. 10, pp. 157-171.
A. Williams, "The Balkans: A European Challenge", in D. Danta, D. Hall, eds. Reconstructing the Balkans, ch. 18, pp. 211-225.
Z. Golubovic, "The Implications of the Conflict in Ex-Yugoslavia for the European Security", Paper presented at the Woodrow Wilson Center Alumni in France in Sept. 1996, pp. 319-333.

Additional reading: S. Woodward, "Rethinking Security in the Post-Yugoslav Era", in G. Allison, K. Nicolaides, eds. The Greek Paradox, Promise vs. Performance, Cambridge 1997, pp. 113-122.
D. Hall, D. Danta, "Reconstructing the Balkans: The Economic Horizon"; "Forward into History", in: Reconstructing the Balkans, ch. 19-20, pp. 227-256.

BOB (Slobodan) ZUNJICH

Dr. Bob Zunjich was born in 1949 in Pristina (Kosovo). Before emigrating to the United States in 1997 he was an associate professor of philosophy at the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad. He was also editor-in-chief of Gledista, a leading Yugoslav journal in social sciences, and, prior to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, a co-director in the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik. He has studied Balkan history under Fanula Papazoglu, an internationally renown scholar, and later worked as a research-fellow at the Institute for European Studies. He has taught courses in ancient philosophy, Byzantine civilization, contemporary European thought, "practical philosophy", Marxism and German philosophy. Before coming to URI he taught a course on the Balkans at the University of Pennsylvania ("The Balkans: Past and Present"). He is fluent in Serbo-Croatian, German, English, and French, with reading proficiency in Russian, Italian, modern Greek, classical Greek and Latin. His forthcoming book is Logic and Theology: The Dialectica of John Damascene in Byzantine and South Slav Philosophy. Earlier books include Aristotle and Henology, The Crisis and Perspectives of Philosophy and Martin Heidegger and National Socialism.

APPENDIX

ETHNICITY IN BALKAN COUNTRIES
(Statistical Breakdown)

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The Balkan Lesson


"I am gradually grasping who is the victim and who is the perpetrator!"