{"id":18003,"date":"2019-12-12T10:03:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T10:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=18003"},"modified":"2019-12-12T10:03:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T10:03:16","slug":"mila-dragojevic-amoral-communities-collective-crimes-in-time-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=18003","title":{"rendered":"Mila Dragojevi\u0107, \u201cAmoral Communities: Collective Crimes in Time of War\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Amoral Communities<\/em>, Mila Dragojevi\u0107 examines how conditions conducive to atrocities against civilians are created during wartime in some communities. She identifies the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders as the main processes. In these places, political and ethnic identities become linked and targeted violence against civilians becomes both tolerated and justified by the respective authorities as a necessary sacrifice for a greater political goal.<\/p>\n

Dragojevi\u0107 augments the literature on genocide and civil wars by demonstrating how violence can be used as a political strategy, and how communities, as well as individuals, remember episodes of violence against civilians. The communities on which she focuses are Croatia in the 1990s and Uganda and Guatemala in the 1980s. In each case Dragojevi\u0107 considers how people who have lived peacefully as neighbors for many years are suddenly transformed into enemies, yet intracommunal violence is not ubiquitous throughout the conflict zone; rather, it is specific to particular regions or villages within those zones. Reporting on the varying wartime experiences of individuals, she adds depth, emotion, and objectivity to the historical and socioeconomic conditions that shaped each conflict.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, as Amoral Communities<\/em> describes, the exclusion of moderates and the production of borders limit individuals’ freedom to express their views, work to prevent the possible defection of members of an in-group, and facilitate identification of individuals who are purportedly a threat. Even before mass killings begin, Dragojevi\u0107 finds, these and similar changes will have transformed particular villages or regions into amoral communities, places where the definition of crime changes and violence is justified as a form of self-defense by perpetrators.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cornell University Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publication date: 10\/15\/2019<\/p>\n

Pages: 224<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9781501739828\/amoral-communities\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mila Dragojevi\u0107 is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of the South. She is author of The Politics of Social Ties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Praise<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Mila Dragojevi\u0107’s book significantly contributes to our understanding of local-level violence,\u00a0civil war and insurgencies, and the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.”<\/p>\n

V.P. Gagnon Jr., Ithaca College, author of the prize-winning book\u00a0The Myth of Ethnic War<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Amoral Communities<\/em> is methodologically innovative as it takes the respondents’ understanding of violence seriously\u2014not as a ‘test’ of preexisting deductive theory, but as an actual explanation. It is a wonderful contribution to the comparative study of ethnic violence.”<\/p>\n

Jelena Suboti\u0107, Georgia State University, author of Hijacked Justice<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Dragojevic.jpg?fit=298%2C447&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53321,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53321","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":0},"title":"Poziv na predavanje \u201cAgainst Neutrality: Palestine, Ethical Scholarship and Solidarity\u201d","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"14. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"We are pleased to announce that Stephanie Westbrook will be with us next week, both in Zagreb and Rijeka. Stephanie is academic boycott campaigns coordinator for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel \u2013 PACBI (https:\/\/www.bdsmovement.net\/pacbi), a founding member of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Inicijativa.jpg?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Inicijativa.jpg?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Inicijativa.jpg?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Inicijativa.jpg?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52742,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52742","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":1},"title":"The Violent 1950s: Towards a New History of the Global \u201cPostwar\u201d Decade, Washington, DC, 25th\u201326th February 2027 (Deadline: 12th June 2026)","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"4. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"This international conference aims to reassess the so-called postwar years. Reconceptualizing the 1950s as a deeply violent decade, marked not by the absence of conflict, but rather by its reconfiguration on all levels, the conference explores the manifold societal, political, and everyday manifestations of violence in the twilight phase of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53793,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53793","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":2},"title":"“Shaping the Nation in Medieval Europe”, ed. E. Adde","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"2. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"This volume in The Medieval Globe book seriesexplores a fundamental problem of European historiography within a global context: the history of medieval nations and the question of their relationship to modern nation-states. Focusing on the emerging or established societies of Christian Europe and their immediate neighbours, contributors ask: To what\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Knjige"","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53712,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53712","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":3},"title":"INVITATION TO A SERIES OF SHORT LECTURES ENTITLED BEYOND PASTORAL CARE: CLERGY, SOCIETY, AND POPULAR AGENCY IN THE LATE HABSBURG EMPIRE","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"25. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"You are kindly invited to a series of short lectures entitled Beyond Pastoral Care: Clergy, Society, and Popular Agency in the Late Habsburg Empire, which will take place on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, from 11:00 to 13:00 at the Institute of Contemporary History. The event will feature a lecture by\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clergy-2.png?fit=1090%2C615&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52834,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52834","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":4},"title":"“Spatial Worlds of Medieval Central Europe: Real, Imagined, and Conceptual”, Budapest, 19\u201321 May 2027","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"6. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Following successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016), Zagreb (2018), Gda\u0144sk (2021), Bratislava (2023), and Munich (2025), the Seventh Biennial Conference of MECERN (http:\/\/mecern.eu\/) will focus on spatial worlds in medieval history, especially in Central Europe. The concepts of space, place, and the environment are central to our understanding of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mecern-Logo.jpg?fit=450%2C270&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52580,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52580","url_meta":{"origin":18003,"position":5},"title":"Conference “Living in the aftermaths: Trauma, politics and survival in Yugoslavia and successor states, 1945 \u2013 present”","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"21. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The conference aims to explore how war-related psychological distress was experienced, narrated, debated and reframed in Yugoslavia in the second half of the twentieth century. It asks how the theme of wounded psyche and wartime suffering was addressed and acknowledged in political, psychiatric and broader cultural discourses of socialist Yugoslavia,\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18005,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18003\/revisions\/18005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}