European terrorism of the 1970s has been studied from a number of perspectives and at various levels, from individual actors to global and transnational contexts. Yet Mate Nikola Tokić's new book manages to deliver a novel framing for an internationally lesser-known phenomenon—political violence among the Croatian diaspora in the postwar world.

The book offers two interconnected stories: one of Croatian exile communities and their political struggles, and the other of diasporic political violence in the context of the Cold War. As the author himself stresses, “while the empirical subject to be explored in the text – Cold War-era anti-Yugoslav separatist Croats – may be of greatest interest to specialists in Croatian and Yugoslav history, the underlying conceptual issues addressed in the book – the origins, development, and character of diasporic political violence – are relatable across disciplines and specialties” (5). One of the declared aims of this approach is to contest the imagined link between terrorism and migration, so often amplified and used in political rhetoric. As Tokić argues, the relation between the two phenomena is much more complicated.

The book's first part unveils a fascinating story of the Croatian émigré community scattered across the postwar world, including the competition and animosities between rival organizations and their leading figures. The Croatian diaspora's policies constituted a unique mix of anti-communism and nationalist separatism, which is perhaps best embodied in the label “Serbo-communism,” expressing both Serbian hegemony over the Yugoslav state and its detested socialist nature. The resistance against Tito's Yugoslavia thus may bring up parallels with domestic and exiled anti-communist resistance among East European nations, but also with separatist political traditions based on a nationality principle. Apart from its factionalism, the diaspora also suffered from generational discord, which proves essential to Tokić's narrative. While the “old guard” set up the scene for the separatist struggle against “Serbo-communism,” it was the younger generation that took it to another level. Disappointment in traditional émigré politics led to shifts in strategies and adoption of new methods, including political violence—or terrorism. Furthermore, this violence was even stepped up at the beginning of the 1970s, when it stopped being limited to Yugoslav targets only and started to aim indiscriminately at the public in host countries, including West Germany.

In a way, a similar development can be seen in the rise of neo-fascism in Europe. In Italy, the 1960s also saw the growth of a new movement, drawing from old Fascist traditions but also adopting new methods of terrorism. One can also see a parallel with the New Left, expressing disillusionment with the old (leftist) ways and slowly ratcheting up activism and violence. And despite fundamental ideological differences, it was the revolutionary anti-colonial left and the African, Asian, and Latin American national liberation movements that inspired the Croatian radical diaspora. Following David C. Rapoport's argument, it was the global wave of terrorism that influenced the émigré Croats in methods, choice of targets, and even language. In Operation Feniks (Phoenix)—the attempt to incite an insurgent guerrilla movement in Yugoslavia—we can even observe inspiration by Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution. Tokić's book, however, does not go in much detail about the influence of this global terrorist current (or wave). Other terrorist organizations occasionally appear to remind us that the context is the age of terrorism, but the focus stays on the Croats. This is a good thing—while the reader might be eager to discover more on transnational mentalities and appropriation by the Croatian separatists of behavioral patterns from ideological opponents, too much emphasis on the terror wave would damage consistency of the main subject.

One of the book's strengths is the ability to present the issues under discussion in all their complexity. Whether it follows the separatist struggle from the interwar period, the influence of ethno-racist language and imagery, or the difficult and unique position of Yugoslavs in exile in the international Cold War environment, the book does not generalize, and instead portrays the topics in all their intricacy. This is especially important in the chapters that deal with the relations between migration and terrorism, and the complex mix of social and political motivations for emigration and radicalization. Tokić adopts a subtle approach also for the term “terrorism” itself. Most works that use this problematic term take the time to coin their definition of terrorism. Tokić acknowledges the academic debate but deals with the problem surprisingly easily: he understands terrorism in the way in which the Croats themselves described their activities, that is, as revolutionary struggle. This use of the term, though, comes with no moral judgment—especially when put next to the violent Yugoslav response (such as targeted assassinations abroad) or the often-draconic measures of the host countries.

Mate Nikola Tokić has written a comprehensive work based on archival research in Australia, Germany, Serbia, Croatia, the United States, and several other countries, and extensive secondary literature. It is an example of a great study of a specific phenomenon—specific enough, as the author argues in the epilogue, that it is even difficult to categorize it. However, it also provides framing and conclusions useful to transdisciplinary research, and as such, it opens doors for further possible explorations.