This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace

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Summary: "This Was Not Our War"
Review: The central focus of Ambassador Hunt's book is the women from various Bosnian backgrounds whom she interviewed, and who uniformly reject the premise that the recent Bosnian wars were an inevitable result of the area's diverse ethnic and religious composition. The book traces the women's general lack of a formal role in their country's policy-making circles during the period before the tragedy; their victimization during it ("Men feared being killed....We women were afraid of being caught alive."); and their ongoing (sometimes quiet, and sometimes more public) dedication to sustaining and rebuilding their society. The women's comments, and those of Amb. Hunt who was posted in Vienna during a key part of the conflict, also show the calculated and chilling manner in which leaders of the nation knowingly set about to destroy portions of their society and sacrifice many of its people for their own personal gain. ("The campaign was composed of small bits. We didn't recognize the whole picture, because it came in tiny, invisible pieces....You get so used to it...that you can't recognize it any more.") The book contains valuable insight into the manipulations and psychology of the nation's leadership, and what Amb. Hunt refers to as "the transformation of privilege [of some of the dominant groups] into a victim mentality...".
The book contains interesting information about the positions taken by other nations and leaders (including those in America) toward the building and ongoing conflict.
There are also strong currents of hope and optimism which help to balance the narratives of the destruction. One of the women interviewed comments on the relatively advanced position of Muslim women's rights in Bosnia: ("We should help the women of Kabul. Bosniak women are an inspiration for women all over the world.") And another offers the important lesson that she had "learned that political action is not only about influencing others. It's also about preserving her last shred of self-respect."
The book is important reading for anyone interested in the Balkan region in general, and particularly in its more recent history and the prospects for its future; in the role of women in that society (or any other); the role of leadership in fostering, or destroying, the common welfare of the people; and the ability of diverse groups in any region to coexist peacefully and constructively.
And don't neglect the footnotes: they contain a lot of interesting information and insights.

Rating:
Summary: This Was Not Their War, But All Wars are "Ours"
Review: This Was Not our War by former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Swanee Hunt is a deeply troubling and hopeful work. First-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women from diverse backgrounds form a narrative for understanding conflict and daily life in the Balkans during the 1990's. As the reader meets these women and enters into their experiences, and especially their powerful movements to build a peaceful society, we not only encounter their lives, but through them gain some sense of the struggles and hopes of people caught in other similar contemporary human disasters in Cambodia, Rwanda, and the Sudan.

The women whose stories are presented here are teachers and politicians, business owners and factory workers, journalists and physicians. They are Muslim, Orthodox, Jewish, Catholic and non-religious. They are Croats and Serbs and very clear that the ethnic distinctions on which so much destruction was based was largely a myth of justification amplified out of all proportion by those who made the war.

Each woman who was interviewed is presented with a photo and a brief biography which had great impact on me as a reader, bringing them to life. And once they were alive, then the narrative and history also came to life in a much more personal way. They are like women I know, my friends and neighbors.

I believe it is in making that connection that this work is most important and valuable. When the people involved in war seem like strangers to me, I can tend to distance from what I read and see and hear. The particulars of these women in their photos, narratives and biographies broke through that kind of shield. In doing so, I came to understand that the Bosnian conflict, while not of their choosing or design, was like all wars, our war, in which we all participate and suffer and to which we all have power to respond. Our way as humans in this world does not have to be this kind of warring madness. Ambassador Hunt's book helps us see the possibilities of other ways.