Balkan peoples are, “superb in physique, dense in their ignorance of the rudiments of education,” and, “fierce in their opposition to the pressure of orderly, centralized administration,” wrote Roland G. Usher in his assessment of the Balkan Crisis in the 1913 January issue of the Atlantic. A similar assessment, however, could have been and was written in the 1990s and even today as the negative perceptions of the region and its peoples stubbornly persist. It is precisely the continued view of the Balkans as backward, nationalistic, and prone to war and violence that, since at least 1990s, prompted the formation of a sustained field of interdisciplinary research. It is to this rich area that Nikolina Bobic's book, Balkanization and Global Politics (2019) belongs to.
Relying on poststructuralist theory, Bobic develops a multi-pronged analysis of urbanism and architecture in the context of the Balkanist discourse. She writes, “the Balkans is perceived through the lens of violent imaginary of racial and ethnic hatreds…a signifier of violence…opposed to supposed Western civilization” (1). Over the seven chapters, the author outlines how urbanism, space, and architecture have been affected by these negative perceptions, and how these perceptions have been both entrenched, even deepened, through various representational, military, political, and economic mechanisms. Balkanization and Global Politics is concentrated on the more recent history, highlighting the post-1990s period, as it seeks to unpack Balkanism via Yugoslavia as its example. It does not treat Balkanism, however, in the sense of Maria Todorova's comparative analysis. Rather, Bobic opts to use the term by focusing on Serbia, with some venturing into other parts of Yugoslavia. Yet, as the author rightly points out (indeed this is the premise of the entire book), the region's heterogeneous nature cannot be boiled down to a single representational point; it therefore follows that no one Balkan country can stand in for others. Bobic's insistence on dealing with the complexity of the Balkanist discourse more narrowly by analyzing it via Yugoslav exceptionality in some ways undermines the author's agenda to reassess Balkanism and its political potential.
As the subtitle of the book suggests, its main subject is urbanism and architecture, an important and rather understudied topic within Balkan studies. While urbanism and architecture are present in most of the chapters, their presence does not take center-stage. For example, in Chapter 4 the author's discussion of the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia predominantly centers on the political and military discourses around NATO's incredibly problematic and precedent-setting intervention, with only the last four or so pages dedicated to the destruction of urban landscape and architecture. Bobic's insights into urbicide are crucial, and her arguments are strongest when dealing with urbanism and architecture––such as for example when Bobic touches on the notion of rubble and its meaning in the built environment, or when she discusses post-2000s urban development in Belgrade and its dependence on various international loans. Yet, the author does not develop these key points more fully as she does not give herself space to do so. Most of the book is spent on theorizing Balkanism and balkanization more generally, which could have been shortened in order to focus on issues of urbicide, war and destruction of architecture, and environmental degradation, all topics relevant not just for the understudied urbanism in the Balkans, but urbanism more broadly.
Politically Balkanization and Global Politics makes some important observations, especially when Bobic assesses the current situation in the Balkans as neocolonial, brining economic and political realities to bare. At times, however, Bobic seems to herself fall into a negative Balkanist discourse, not developing enough the kinds of theoretical paradigms she has initiated; for example, when discussing Serbian nationalism in architecture during the 1990s in war zones (in Vukovar, or implications of occupation and bombardment of Sarajevo), essentialization and exoticization in the work of Emir Kusturica, or possible essentialization in the discussion of Romani settlements in Belgrade. Entering into a more robust dialog with scholars and activists who have written on similar topics would have been helpful for bolstering Bobic's arguments––for example, architectural historians such as Vladimir Kulić, Maroje Mrduljaš, Jelica Jovanović, and Kimberly Zarecor, or theorists such as Andrej Grubačić, Tamara Vukov, Tanja Petrović, Neda Atanasoski, Konstantin Kilibarda, Rade Zinaić, Brigitte Le Normand, among others. Bobic does mention Andrej Grubačić but in passing, making a note of his term “balkanism from below,” without further elaboration on Don't Mourn Balkanize (2010), in which Grubačić puts forward a Balkanist political manifesto, something that Bobic tries to do in her own work. Furthermore, essential reading on the issues of NATO's intervention in Serbia and elsewhere, like Neda Atanasoski's Humanitarian Violence (2013), in which the author succinctly and elaborately weaves the discussion of postsocialist Balkans in its entanglements with American economic, political, and military power, needs mentioning.
Without a doubt, Bobic asks two crucial questions: how has Balkanist discourse influenced and shaped Yugoslav postsocialist urban development, architecture, geography, and public memory, and how can it be activated for a different politics in the region. The book, however, tries to do too many things. Dealing with the enormity of Balkanism while at the same time attempting to open a vast theme of urbicide and spatial degradation under neoliberal transition makes for an impossible task. For example, I would have been excited to read Bobic's analysis of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and its unbelievable architectural militarism, but the author barely mentions it, missing an excellent opportunity to show her strength as an architectural scholar. A deeper assessment of the history of Yugoslavia's socialist architecture, and architectural cooperation with the nonaligned partners would have helped buttress the book's main argument as well. Balkanization and Global Politics was somewhat frustrating at times because it left the reader wanting more analysis of urbanism and architecture, and less poststructuralist theorizing that, while seductive, not always productive in the context of the Balkan region. Notwithstanding, Balkanization and Global Politics offers a refresher in the early theoretical work around Balkanism, and opens up some good research trajectories for scholars and students interested in urbanism and architecture of Yugoslavia.
