Balkan Ghosts
“Were it not originally for religion, there would be little basis for Serb-Croat enmity” (Kaplan, P. 25). The Balkans represent a crossroad of cultures and empires that has created a diverse region filled with resentment and animosity. Catholics in Croatia have murdered numerous Orthodox Serbs, who in turn have killed Croats and Bosniaks, who all have fought against Bulgaria, Turkey, Austro-Hungary, Germany and Communism.
The scars and internal tensions in the region are why journalist Robert D. Kaplan spent so much time in the Balkans creating his travel-book, “Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History.”
The purpose of this book is to give the reader an understanding of what it would be like to be in the Balkans during the fall of Yugoslavia. In doing this, Kaplan also gives the reader a history lesson which provides the background information necessary to grasp the dynamics of the region. Even though the region of the Balkans has stabilized a little since NATO and UN interference, it is still a potentially volatile region with lingering hatred. As the date of December 10th looms largely over the region it is more important than ever to pay attention to this war-torn region. No matter what the outcome is on December 10th, resentment will remain. When Kosovo, also called Old Serbia, is recognized as an autonomous state by the United States on December 10th a whole new wave of animosity will sweep over the region.
One of the main themes present throughout Kaplan’s book is that history will repeat itself. The situation cannot be solved by bombing and blaming the Serbs or by stationing troops in Kosovo and Bosnia. The hatred runs deep and has been around for the past five hundred years. The Orthodox Serbs, who have ties to Orthodox Russia, Greece and Romania, feeling that they need to protect themselves and their compatriots. The Ustashe government of Croatia committed genocide against the Orthodox Serb population. “If you were to say that the Croatian Ustashe murdered 700,000 Serbs at Jesenovac, a World War II death camp… you would be recognized as a Serbian nationalist who despises Croats as well as Albanians…But if you were to say that the Ustashe fascists murdered only 60,000 Serbs, you would be pegged as a Croat nationalist… who despises Serbs and their leader, Milosevic” (Kaplan, p. 5-6).
Croatia is mostly Catholic and Serbia is mostly Orthodox, while Bosnia-Herzegovina is a mixture of Serbs, Croats and Muslims. All of these groups of people are Slavic, there are no ethnic differences. “The Serbs and the Croats were, as regards race and language, originally one people, the two names having merely geographical signification,’ writes the British expert Nevill Forbes in a classic 1915 study of the Balkans” (Kaplan, p.25). Even though there are no ethnic lines for division; cultural, geographic and historical divisions remain strong.
Croatia relates strongly to western culture and values and looks towards Vienna as an example of what they want to become. While Serbia relates to Russian culture and values and looks either towards Moscow or inwards at Belgrade for an example. Early on Serbia was lumped together with eastern traditions and was viewed as being closely associated with the Ottoman Empire.
In “Balkan Ghosts,” Kaplan does an excellent job of articulating the vast and complicated history of the Balkans. He does this by interviewing the people that live there and have experience the history. Kaplan is able to get close to the truth of the matter by interviewing the people and going to the places where the historical events have occurred. Not everybody has had such a warm response to Kaplan’s insight.
Tom Bissell, a journalist, author and critic has a negative view towards Kaplan and his so-called ‘travel-books.’ “Throughout his long career Robert D. Kaplan has consistently benefited from the fact that no one has any idea what, exactly, he is. A humble travel writer? A popular historian? A panjandrum analyst of developing-world politics and personalities” (Bissell,VQRonline.org)? Bissell continues to criticize Kaplan’s methods, where he sometimes only spends a few days in a country and sometimes lives in the country for a few years. Kaplan is also criticized as being a ‘fan of war,’ and someone who gets everything half-wrong. “In 1993, the Balkans expert Noel Malcolm gutted Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts for its many errors of fact and judgment; Kaplan’s hapless response earned this rejoinder from Malcolm: “The basic problem, I think, is that Mr. Kaplan cannot read” (vqronline.org). Such hilarious critiques are sure to have upset Kaplan, who has garnered the attention of top politicians and army generals.
Even though he is criticized for his style of writing and a slew of other things, Kaplan has an impressive list of loyal followers. He has spoken at military war colleges, the CIA, FBI, NSA, Joint Chief of Staffs and appeared on PBS, NPR, C-SPAN and FOX News. He has been a consultant for the U.S. Airforce, Marines and the Army’s Special Forces Regiment. He is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and he has won numerous awards for reporting and public service. No matter what the critics say about Kaplan, he must be quite confident in his abilities.
The book presents a detailed picture of the Balkans but fails to provide the necessary information to gain a real accurate view of what is happening. Throughout the book there are only a few paragraphs dedicated to any discussion about Bosnia, and even then Herzegovina is barely mentioned. While he was able to get at the root of the situation between the Croats and Serbs, he tended to generalize. According to Kaplan, Bosniaks concern themselves with the issue of the Ustashe murdering Serbs. Why would war and violence break out because of something the Croats did to the Serbs fifty years ago? That is absolutely one of the many factors that led up to the war in Bosnia, but calls to unite the Greater Serbia from Slobodan Milosevic and local tensions had more to do with the war than Croatian history.
Even though the impact of the Ottoman Empire is detailed throughout the book, a whole section should be dedicated to their influence. Without the invasions of Turkish hordes for 400 years, a lot of the tension today would be non-existent. There was little discussion about current hatred against the Turks except for little mention about Bulgaria expelling around 100,000 Turkish people before communism fell.
There was little information about Turkey wanting to be more like the West and join Western organizations and about their ongoing rivalry with Greece. Kaplan does have an air of arrogance that does not befit him. He often refers to other writings on the subject of the Balkans as insufficient and generally not as complete as his own. This arrogance gets annoying after one gets towards the end of the book, where he assaults other media correspondents for being too ‘western’ and ignorant. This is precisely the critical advice that gets levied against him by others. Besides failing to mention a couple tidbits of information, Kaplan created an enjoyable travelogue that was very easy and quick to read.
‘Balkan Ghosts’ is easy to read and entertaining. Kaplan tells stories of the black market in Romania where he was offered the services of a few different prostitutes that would not leave him alone. But, most of the stories offered are there for historical context and not to really give the reader an idea of traveling in that country. Kaplan fails to write about the things that would interest one that would travel there, but succeeds in writing about the sociopolitical issues facing the region.
I will be recommending this book to anyone who wants to gain a basic understanding of the issues facing the Balkan states. Truly, one cannot know all of the issues and their breadth without living in the region for their whole lives. But, Kaplan gives the reader a background in the region that surpasses most reporting and textbooks written about the area. I have enjoyed reading this book and gained a better appreciation for the delicacy of the situation in the Balkan region.
Works Cited
Bissell, Tom. Euphorias of Perrier: The Case Against Robert D. Kaplan. http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2006/summer/bissell-euphoria-perrier/. 2007.
Kaplan, Robert D. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History. New York: Picador,1993.
