Croatia: Victims of Transition? The Role of Homeland War Veterans in Public Discourse in Croatia

Jakir, Aleksandar

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-30829-2_3

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite links to the regime's clientelist network, veterans can also be seen as "the losers of transition" (Jakir, 2019), especially in connection with the transformation and privatisation of once socially-owned companies during the 1990s. Through voucher privatisation, veterans were handed stocks of these newly privatised companies, and many impoverished veterans sold their shares for a fraction of their value (Jurković, 1993).…”

Section: Defenders From the Homeland Warmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Protest, Coup d’État, or Internal Party Power Struggle

Milekić

2022

Polit. misao (Online)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper investigates war veterans as organisers of contentious politics in ‎post-war Croatia, by looking into two significant protests. Already amid the‎1990s War in Croatia, the first veteran associations were tied to the army or ‎governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). After the HDZ government ‎ignored their demands in 1996, the main association gathering disabled veterans‎ announced a protest, shocking the regime. After defusing the situation ‎by meeting most of veteran demands, the protest against the Government ‎was transformed into a support rally for officials who helped the protesters’‎ cause. In 2014, veteran associations initiated a protest over, at first, officials’‎ speculations about PTSD cases among the local Serb population, framed ‎among the veterans as “aggressors”. As Prime Minister Zoran Milanović refused ‎to dismiss the Minister of Veterans and his associates, the veteran protest ‎outlasted the Government, including violent episodes in the government‎ building’s vicinity and ending in April 2016. The article proceeds to analyse ‎the disruptiveness of the protest, the repertoire and violence used, as well as‎ frames of meaning with which protesters justified their collective actions and‎ wished to appeal to wider constituencies. The article attempts to analyse the‎ motives behind the protest and links of protesters with different political actors‎– mostly HDZ – trying to show if veterans acted as independent political ‎actors or only as an extended arm of politicians. By using veteran associations’‎ documents, archival documents, media reports and literature, the paper‎ wishes to place the two case studies into the body of literature that describes‎ the decades-long patron-client relationship between veterans, HDZ and the‎ state.‎

show abstract

Section: Defenders From the Homeland Warmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Protest, Coup d’État, or Internal Party Power Struggle

Milekić

2022

Polit. misao (Online)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

(En)acting our experience: Combat veterans, veteranality, and building resilience to extremism

Warner¹

2022

J Regional Security

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drawing from emerging arenas within (applied) anthropology and informed by ongoing ethnographic fieldwork alongside combat veterans in Southeast Europe, this paper follows indications that veterans and veteran organizations are potential enablers/maintainers of resilience to violent extremism within societies. This position builds from the recognition that veterans embody a unique capacity for resilience; a capacity generated by surviving combat and deepened as veterans encounter the struggles of life after service. Exploring this proposition of veteran contribution and collaboration suggests a (re)theorization of the veteran in society is required. In service of this (re)theorization, the concepts of "veteranality" and "critical veteranality" are introduced to signify and engage a social ontology representing the dynamics of the veteran life-world. In conclusion, it is argued that (re)theorization, ethnographic methodologies and anthropological engagement will guide how socio-political strategies countering extremism can be opened to veteran (en)acted experiences with resilience.

show abstract

Croatia: Victims of Transition? The Role of Homeland War Veterans in Public Discourse in Croatia

Cited by 2 publications

References 12 publications

A Protest, Coup d’État, or Internal Party Power Struggle

A Protest, Coup d’État, or Internal Party Power Struggle

(En)acting our experience: Combat veterans, veteranality, and building resilience to extremism

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About