Category Archives: Bosnia

Srebrenica After Twenty Years

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Dr Gerard Toal

Twenty years ago I was in northern Italy, enjoying that wonderful country and the hospitality of a good family. On the TV news, we saw pictures from the fall of Srebrenica. I remember  being struck by the phrase ‘Musulmani’ during the broadcasts … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, genocide | Leave a comment

Fears and Fantasies about the “Flesh of the Nation”

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Dr Gerard Toal

Yesterday Adis Maksic defended his Ph D dissertation “Mobilizing for Ethnic Violence? Ethno-National Political Parties and the Dynamics of Ethno-Politicization.” Adis is a Sarajevo native who was fortunately able to come to the United States with his family after his family suffered a … Continue reading →

Posted in Affect, Bosnia, Bosnian war, Cartography, Current affairs, Democracy, ethnic cleansing, genocide, Georgia, nationalism, neuropolitics, South Ossetia, World political map | Leave a comment

Bosnia by the Black Sea? Could Crimea be another BiH?

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Dr Gerard Toal

I have an op ed on this topic on the Open Democracy Russia website under the title “Could Crimea Be Another Bosnia?” http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/gerard-toal/could-crimea-be-another-bosnia-republika-srpska-krajina For Bosnia specialists, below is the source I used for the opening quote. Specialists will know I … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, Bosnian war, Current affairs, De Facto States, Political Borders, Political Geography, Putin, Radovan Karadzic, referendum, Rhetoric, unilateral declaration of independence | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Birth of a Nation: Radovan Karadžić and the Ethnopoliticization of Bosnia in 1990

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

By the time he strode to the podium in Skenderija Hall, Sarajevo, on 12 July 1990 to speak, the journey of Dr Radovan Karadžić from obscure psychiatrist to politician, wartime leader, and later accused war criminal had begun. Karadžić had been working for months … Continue reading →

Posted in Affect, Bosnia, Bosnian war, Current affairs, Democracy, ethnic cleansing, genocide, political system, Radovan Karadzic, Rhetoric, war crimes, World political map | Tagged | 2 Comments

Joe Sacco and the Great War

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

I had the pleasure of meeting Joe Sacco last night at Politics and Prose where he presented his latest work, The Great War. July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme. An Illustrated Panorama. First conceived over 15 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, Bosnian war, Caucasus conflict, Chechnya, Current affairs, Geopolitics, Popular Geopolitics, Radovan Karadzic, Washington D.C. | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bridging Division: (London) Derry & Mostar

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

Derry and Mostar are divided by histories of sectarian strife and ethnoterritorialism,  and physically united by bridges as symbols of aspirational unity (like the peace bridge above, photo credit Peter MacDiarmid). At the end of this month I am participating in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, Bosnian war, Current affairs, Northern Ireland | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Airstrikes and Affect over chemical weapons use in Syria

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

It looks like the US and some allied countries, possibly France and the UK, are making preparations for limited military strikes against the infrastructure of the regime of Assad in Syria. No doubt this action will spark outrage among some, … Continue reading →

Posted in Affect, Bosnia, Current affairs, genocide, Syria | Tagged , | 3 Comments

The Improvised State

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

Alex Jeffrey is a lecturer in Geography at Cambridge University in the (maybe not so) United Kingdom (what say you Scotland?). He is the author of a theoretically innovative new book called The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, Bosnian war, Critical Geopolitics, Current affairs, Democracy, ethnic cleansing, ICTY, nationalism, Radovan Karadzic, state theory | Leave a comment

Reversing Ethnic Cleansing: Is It Possible Peacefully?

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

On 10 March I gave the closing keynote at the 6th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). The topic of my talk was Reversing Ethnic Cleansing: Bosnia’s Experience and Protracted Displacement in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Abkhazia, August War, Bosnia, Bosnian war, Caucasus conflict, Current affairs, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, genocide, Georgia, nationalism, Pinheiro Principles, restitution, South Ossetia, World political map | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Rhetorical Politics of Milorad Dodik

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Dr Gerard Toal

My essay on the former prime minister and current president of Republika Srpska has just been published in the Discussion section of the journal Nationalities Papers, a Taylor and Francis journal (41, 1: 160-204). I’m grateful to the departing editor … Continue reading →

Posted in Bosnia, Bosnian war, Current affairs, Democracy, nationalism, Rhetoric, World political map | Tagged , | Leave a comment