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This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace Paperback – September 9, 2011

by Swanee Hunt (Author)
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"Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope . . . the women in This Was Not Our War teach us how."—William Jefferson Clinton

This Was Not Our War shares amazing first-person accounts of twenty-six Bosnian women who are reconstructing their society following years of devastating warfare. A university student working to resettle refugees, a paramedic who founded a veterans’ aid group, a fashion designer running two nonprofit organizations, a government minister and professor who survived Auschwitz—these women are advocates, politicians, farmers, journalists, students, doctors, businesswomen, engineers, wives, and mothers. They are from all parts of Bosnia and represent the full range of ethnic traditions and mixed heritages. Their ages spread across sixty years, and their wealth ranges from expensive jewels to a few chickens. For all their differences, they have this much in common: all survived the war with enough emotional strength to work toward rebuilding their country. Swanee Hunt met these women through her diplomatic and humanitarian work in the 1990s. Over the course of seven years, she conducted multiple interviews with each one. In presenting those interviews here, Hunt provides a narrative framework that connects the women’s stories, allowing them to speak to one another.

The women describe what it was like living in a vibrant multicultural community that suddenly imploded in an onslaught of violence. They relate the chaos; the atrocities, including the rapes of many neighbors and friends; the hurried decisions whether to stay or flee; the extraordinary efforts to care for children and elderly parents and to find food and clean drinking water. Reflecting on the causes of the war, they vehemently reject the idea that age-old ethnic hatreds made the war inevitable. The women share their reactions to the Dayton Accords, the end of hostilities, and international relief efforts. While they are candid about the difficulties they face, they are committed to rebuilding Bosnia based on ideals of truth, justice, and a common humanity encompassing those of all faiths and ethnicities. Their wisdom is instructive, their courage and fortitude inspirational.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    344 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Duke University Press Books
  4. Publication date
    September 9, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    6.25 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0822352141
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0822352143
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Here is history watched in its unfolding, then put on record. Women tell an astute listener what they saw, read, and remember even as their careful witness—at once an eloquent and tragic story—is enabled by the knowing attention of a seasoned diplomat and psychologist. This effort advances the kind of history Tolstoy urged be written—a narration of on-the-scene individuals rendered by one herself very much willing to be respectfully among them.”—Robert Coles, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities and former James Agee Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University

“I met Swanee Hunt as a diplomat in Vienna. I worked beside her as an activist in the Balkans. Now I know her as a writer, addressing a world sorely in need of her message of challenge and hope. Her words resonate with the authenticity of an observer and advocate who has devoted not only attention, time, and position, but also soul.”—Queen Noor of Jordan, humanitarian activist for world peace and justice and best-selling author of Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

“Swanee Hunt is a diplomat, human rights advocate, and teacher. With This Was Not Our War she shows she is also a gifted listener and writer. In these pages, Hunt captures the rationales and rationalizations for war as well as the despair and stirring dignity of twenty-six women who lived through the Bosnian horrors. Hunt lets the women speak for themselves, telling the story of Bosnia’s descent and recovery their way, and, in so doing, she shows just how vital their voices, insights, and talents will be in rebuilding Bosnia and its shattered lives.”—Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide

“An important and well-written book that is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in the Balkans, anthropology of conflict, and international affairs.”―Aleksandra Sasha Milicevic, International Feminist Journal of Politics

“With lessons for virtually all societies struggling with civil strife or tensions arising of unsettled histories of violence and injury, the women, mediated by Swanee Hunt’s perceptive and empathetic ear, tell us that reconciliation will require three things: telling the truth, imposing justice, and remembering that the perpetrators are human.”―Franke Wilmer, Peace & Change

“Hunt brilliantly and insightfully succeeds in relating the voices of the women whom she calls her friends and who, in turn, become familiar to the reader through the sharing of their own personal experiences.”―Stephanie Anne-Gaelle Vieille, Millennium

"This Was Not Our War is replete with quotes from scores of Yugoslavian women-Christians, Muslims, Jews-and is a fine example of oral history. It is pertinent and ought to be acquired by all libraries of schools teaching twentieth century history, women's studies, religious studies, or multiculturalism."―Edward Grosek, Catholic Library World

"Hunt, who was President Clinton's ambassador to Austria, has put together interviews with 26 Bosnian women. They come from different backgrounds but share an emotional strength and a generosity of spirit, a dignity and humanity, that together make the case for a greater role for women in the politics of their societies-and make the rest of the world's hesitancy to intervene to defend human rights in Bosnia very had to justify."―Stanley Hoffmann, Foreign Affairs

"The women whose stories are included in the book represent a wide cross-section of Bosnian society. . . . Their bold, painful and sometimes appalling stories are accompanied by strikingly mournful photographs. . . . This Was Not Our War is not solely a book about the war. It's also a book about dignity, the human spirit, generosity, courage, and even about love."―Eetta Prince Gibson, Jerusalem Post

"Women speak wrenchingly and courageously about the fight to save their homes and protect their children; the decision to stay or flee; the attempt to preserve their own bodies and souls; and the ongoing challenge to rebuild their lives and society. . . . Hunt succeeds in capturing, organizing and analyzing the complexities inherent in conversations with 26 very different people during and after an abhorrent war. . . . Readers will be inspired by [these women's] courage. . . ."―Publishers Weekly

Review

“Swanee Hunt is a diplomat, human rights advocate, and teacher. With This Was Not Our War she shows she is also a gifted listener and writer. In these pages, Hunt captures the rationales and rationalizations for war as well as the despair and stirring dignity of twenty-six women who lived through the Bosnian horrors. Hunt lets the women speak for themselves, telling the story of Bosnia’s descent and recovery their way, and, in so doing, she shows just how vital their voices, insights, and talents will be in rebuilding Bosnia and its shattered lives.” -- Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning ― “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Duke University Press Books (September 9, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 344 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0822352141
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0822352143
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

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Swanee Hunt

Swanee Hunt

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Swanee Hunt (www.swaneehunt.org) is President of Hunt Alternatives, which for more than three decades has advanced innovative and systemic approaches to social change at local, national, and global levels. Her work related to combating the demand for illegal purchased sex (including trafficking) and promoting the full inclusion of women leaders in international security processes spans more than sixty countries.

From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Hunt served as US ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international meetings focused on the warring Balkan states, which had descended into bloodshed and destruction. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for nineteen years, she is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy, founder of the Women and Public Policy Program (a research center she directed for a decade), core faculty at the Center for Public Leadership, and senior adviser to the working group on modern-day slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights. She holds two masters degrees, a doctorate in theology, and seven honorary degrees.

Ambassador Hunt has been a syndicated columnist and authored articles for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Magazine, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Her first book, This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, won the 2005 PEN/New England Award for non-fiction. She has also authored Half-Life of a Zealot, Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security and Rwandan Women Rising.

Swanee Hunt summited Kilimanjaro with two new knees, for which she reserves bragging rights for decades to come. A photographer (six one-woman shows) and composer (“The Witness Cantata”), she was married for 25 years to conductor and impresario Charles Ansbacher. Her world includes their three children, plus a menagerie of cat, parrot, horses, bison, and grandchildren.

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5
7 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

K. Farrell
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
very useful document in trying to understand a very confusing conflict.
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flamenko
1.0 out of 5 stars Political auto-goal
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2007
This is yet another attempt to water down the real cause of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reader will conclude that the agressor was not Serbia and Monteneagro, but....some crazy local politicians who succeded in fomanting the heatred after coming to power. Reader is fooled into beleiving that this heatred had nothing to do with previous history, which is full of bloodshed caused by this monsterous project of Greater Serbia. Personal tragedies of these woman are masterfully twisted into illusion that "we lived like a brothers during Marshall Tito", who by the way was one of the biggest criminals and dictatiors in the recent history. If I wrote this when this communist Tito was alive, I'd be in the gulag before this message treavelled from my computer to amazon's server. Poor book, full of illusions and lies! Stay away.
4 people found this helpful
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Mary Whipple
5.0 out of 5 stars "If all soldiers were women, there would not be so much bloodshed."
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2005
Feeling utterly betrayed by their leaders, twenty-six women from all over Bosnia meet with Swanee Hunt, former US Ambassador to Austria and Chair of Women Waging Peace, a global policy initiative. In their own words, they describe the war which ravaged their country and reduced it to rubble. As they make clear from the outset, this war was not a result of age-old ethnic antagonisms in the Balkans, where city after city had been peacefully multi-ethnic and where most families had loyalties to more than one group. It was the direct result, they believe, of the nationalism fomented by unscrupulous politicians, especially Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, as they seized power and wealth in the vacuum which existed following the death of Marshall Tito.

The twenty-six speakers are Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, atheists (former Communists), and Jews, all bright, articulate women who are, and have been, working to heal their society. They include engineers, several journalists and physicians, a teacher, a member of the Bosnian Parliament, a professor at the School of Economics, a landscape architect, a member of the seven-member shared Presidency, a farm wife, a flower shop owner, a teenage student, and an art gallery owner, and they represent all areas of Bosnia, from Srebrenica to Mostar, Tuzla, and Sarajevo.

With one voice, they blame their politicians for the atrocities of the war, pointing out that their leaders' manipulation of the international press and their sectarian chauvinism led to ethnic fundamentalism in a country which had previously been multicultural. The imposition of traditional roles on women led to their enforced withdrawal from decision-making, and they universally agree that that they might have been able to influence the direction of the country toward more cultural understanding and better communication if they had been allowed to continue their previous political, professional, and social roles.

The stories here are lively, personal, often incredibly sad, and absolutely unforgettable. Beautiful color portraits of the women, along with brief biographies, make each woman a "living" voice, and the reader is struck by how much these women typify women around the world. Most remarkably the women, despite the losses of parents, husbands, sons, and friends, all continue rebuilding their country, ignoring ethnic labels as they work to get housing for all refugees, find medical supplies and equipment, establish a women's collective, work with rape victims, plan conferences to bring together women from all over the country, make radio broadcasts, organize news agencies, write books, promote international awareness of the atrocities in Bosnia (especially in Srebrenica), care for the elderly, become ambassadors, and run schools.

Hunt's book and the words of these remarkable women are a major achievement in the understanding of this terrible war, a war far different from what most of us have been led to believe. Fourteen magnificent photographs, in addition to the women's portraits, will wring the heart--an unrecognizable national library, a snow-covered Sarajevo soccer field which is now a cemetery, and a decimated dormitory in the Olympic village. Yet amidst the carnage are smiling women who are changing the face of Bosnia. As Kada tells Hunt, "Thank you for telling my story. What's written down will last." n Mary Whipple
7 people found this helpful
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James S. Davis
5.0 out of 5 stars "This Was Not Our War"
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2005
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.
5 people found this helpful
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