This book explores the historial role of the Balkan Wars. In Eastern Europe, the two Balkan Wars of 1912/13 had greater importance than the First World War for the construction of nations and states. This volume shows how these “short” wars profoundly changed the sociopolitical situation in the Balkans, with consequences that are still felt today. More than one hundred years later, the successors of the belligerent states in Southeastern Europe memorialize the wars as heroic highlights of their respective pasts. Furthermore, the metaphor that the Balkans were Europe’s “powder keg”, perpetuated at the beginning of the twentieth century in the face of these wars, was reactivated in both the West and the East up through the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. The authors entangle the hitherto exclusive national master narratives and analyse them cogently and trenchantly for an international readership. They make an indispensable contribution to the proper integration of the Balkan Wars into the European historical memory of twentieth-century warfare.

This book explores the factors that account for military neutrality as a security strategy for small states. Through comparing the cases of Serbia and Sweden, who have both come to define their security policies in identicial terms of military neutrality/non-alignment, the book introduces a novel conceptual framework that is built against existing knowledge found in the small states and military neutrality literature. Drawing on different theoretical frameworks, the model explains why certain small states choose to stay outside of military alliances in the twenty-first century. The author then applies the new model to the two selected case studies.

Drawing upon Muslim Europe's own voices, institutions, and experiences, this compelling work reframes the debates on European secularism, the historic role of Shari'a law in diverse European states, Muslims and Nazis, Muslims and Communists, and the contributions of Muslims to Europe today.

Though persistently overshadowed by the Great War in historical memory, the two Balkan conflicts of 1912–1913 were among the most consequential of the early twentieth century. By pitting the states of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro against a diminished Ottoman Empire—and subsequently against one another—they anticipated many of the horrors of twentieth-century warfare even as they produced the tense regional politics that helped spark World War I. Bringing together an international group of scholars, this volume applies the social and cultural insights of the “new military history” to revisit this critical episode with a central focus on the experiences of both combatants and civilians during wartime.

This book deals with the Second World War in Southeastern Europe from the perspective of conditions on the ground during the conflict. The focus is on the reshaping of ethnic and religious groups in wartime, on the "top-down" and "bottom-up" dynamics of mass violence, and on the local dimensions of the Holocaust. The approach breaks with the national narratives and "top-down" political and military histories that continue to be the predominant paradigms for the Second World War in this part of Europe.

Sheehan’s thoughtful book makes a convincing case that the modern political order arises out of people’s shared expectations and hopes, without which the nation state could not exist. Every political order depends on a set of shared expectations about how the order does and should work. In Making a Modern Political Order, James Sheehan provides a sophisticated analysis of these expectations and shows how they are a source of both cohesion and conflict in the modern society of nation states. The author divides these expectations into three groups: first, expectations about the definition and character of political space, which in the modern era are connected to the emergence of a new kind of state; second, expectations about the nature of political communities (that is, about how people relate to one another and to their governments); and finally, expectations about the international system (namely, how states interact in a society of nation states). Although Sheehan treats these three dimensions of the political order separately, they are closely bound together, each dependent on—and reinforcing—the others. Ultimately, he claims, the modern nation state must balance all three organizing principles if it is to succeed. Sheehan’s project begins with an examination of people’s expectations about political space, community, and international society in the premodern European world that came to be called the “ancien régime.” He then, in chapters on states, nations, and the society of nation states, proceeds to trace the development of a modern political order that slowly and unevenly replaced the ancien régime in Europe and eventually spread throughout the world. To close, he offers some speculations about the horizon ahead of us, beyond which lies a future order that may someday replace our own.

This book examines British responses to genocide and atrocity in the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of World War I. The authors analyze British humanitarianism and humanitarian intervention through the advice and policies of the Foreign Office and British government in London and the actions of Foreign Officers in the field. British understandings of humanitarianism at the time revolved around three key elements: good government, atrocity, and the refugee crises; this ideology of humanitarianism, however, was challenged by disputed policies of post-war politics and goals regarding the Near East. This resulted in limited intervention methods available to those on the ground but did not necessarily result in the forfeiture of the belief in humanitarianism amongst the local British officials charged with upholding it. This study shows that the tension between altruism and political gain weakened British power in the region, influencing the continuation of violence and repression long after the date most perceive as the cessation of WWI. The book is primarily aimed at scholars and researchers within the field; it is a research monograph and will be of greatest interest to scholars of genocide, British history, and refugee studies, as well as for activists and practitioners.

Originally conceived as a military history, this second edition completes the story of the Middle Eastern populations that underwent significant transformation in the nineteenth century, finally imploding in communal violence, paramilitary activity, and genocide after the Berlin Treaty of 1878. Now called The Ottomans 1700-1923: An Empire Besieged, the book charts the evolution of a military system in the era of shrinking borders, global consciousness, financial collapse, and revolutionary fervour. The focus of the text is on those who fought, defended, and finally challenged the sultan and the system, leaving long-lasting legacies in the contemporary Middle East. Richly illustrated, the text is accompanied by brief portraits of the friends and foes of the Ottoman house. Written by a foremost scholar of the Ottoman Empire and featuring illustrations that have not been seen in print before, this second edition is essential reading for both students and scholars of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman society, military and political history, and Ottoman-European relations.

During the tumultuous age of empire, Ottoman Macedonia became a blank canvas onto which Great Powers and neighboring states projected their aspirations, grievances, ambitions, and state-building endeavors. This manuscript aims to elucidate these constructs and imaginaries, employing a theoretical framework encompassing entangled history, post-colonial theory, and subaltern studies. It will examine both (inter)state and local examples to shed light on the multifaceted nature of this complex issue.

Religious figures of remembrance served to consolidate dynastic rule and later nation-state legitimacy and community. The study illuminates the interweaving of (Eastern) Roman, medieval Serbian and Bulgarian, as well as Ottoman and Western European national discourses culminating in the sacralization of the nation.