It has been two decades since Yugoslavia fell apart. The brutal
conflicts that followed its dissolution are over, but the legacy of the
tragedy continues to unsettle the region. Reconciliation is a long and
difficult process that necessitates a willingness to work together
openly and objectively in confronting the past. Over the past ten years
the Scholars" Initiative has assembled an international consortium of
historians, social scientists, and jurists to examine the salient
controversies that still divide the peoples of former Yugoslavia. The
findings of its eleven research teams represent a direct assault on the
proprietary narratives and interpretations that nationalist politicians
and media have impressed on mass culture in each of the successor
states. Given gaps in the historical record and the existence of
sometimes contradictory evidence, this volume does not pretend to
resolve all of the outstanding issues. Nevertheless, this second edition
incorporates new evidence and major developments that have taken place
in the region since the first edition went to press. At the heart of
this project has always been the insistence of the authors that they
would continue to reconsider their analyses and conclusions based on
credible new evidence. Thus, in this second edition, the work of the
Scholars' Initiative continues. The broadly conceived synthesis will
assist scholars, public officials, and the people they represent both in
acknowledging inconvenient facts and in discrediting widely held myths
that inform popular attitudes and the electoral success of nationalist
politicians who profit from them. Rather than rely on special pleading
and appeals to patriotism that have no place in scholarship, the volume
vests its credibility in the scientific credentials of its
investigators, the transparent impartiality of its methodology, and an
absolute commitment to soliciting and examining evidence presented by
all sides.
