Claremont McKenna College

The Serbs: History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia

TIM JUDAH

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1999

British journalist Tim Judah lived in Belgrade during the Croatian and Bosnian wars. For five years he witnessed the destruction of Yugoslavia firsthand while reporting for The Times of London and The Economist. He witnessed the atrocities, and is well acquainted with the attitudes of the former Yugoslavians toward those atrocities. When the war in Kosovo broke-out, he traveled to Macedonia where he met with and interviewed the notable Kosovo Albanians who fled to escape certain execution. He stood at the boarder and recorded the stories of separation, evacuation, and murder. However, Judah's writings do not simply reiterate those stories. He knows that the Balkan conflicts are deeply rooted in the history of Yugoslavia, Serbia, and the Ottoman Empire. He describes the history behind the nationalism which fuels the fighting. Tim Judah's joint approach, combining excellent firsthand knowledge with a well-researched, scholarly history, provides meaningful insight into the source of the conflict. His prophetic 1997 book, The Serbs: History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, warned of an approaching war in Kosovo. Please join us as he discusses the History, Myth & the Destruction of Yugoslavia. This lecture is jointly sponsored by the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies.