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The Conceit of Innocence Losing the Conscience of the West in the War against Bosnia Edited by Stjepan G. Meštrović |
Innocence may be lost in the post–Cold War West, but the imitation of innocence is evident in the social and political landscape of the 1990s.
Sociologist David Riesman has argued that the current culture attempts to imitate a purity of action, motive, and spirit commonly associated with the 1950s: faith in government and a can-do optimism. In The Conceit of Innocence prominent scholars and former policy makers expose the imitation innocence of Western policy toward the Balkan crisis.
In his introduction Stjepan G. Meštrović shows how the theory of imitation—or conceit—connects the essays of the contributing authors. Anthropologist Akbar S. Ahmed discusses the existence of "ethnic cleansing" vs. Western assertions that ethnic hatreds largely have been overcome. In two essays, Richard Johnson shows the hypocrisy in the U.S. State Department's reaction to the genocide in Bosnia and demonstrates how the West has begun to appease Russian expansionism. Columnist Georgie Anne Geyer furthers this theme by exposing ways the White House, the UN secretary-general, and others pretend to follow the UN Charter while appeasing genocidal aggression.
Keith Doubt reveals how the West attempts to "save face" and "give face" to Slobodan Miloševic. Slaven Letica shows the lionization of war criminals in the West. Brad K. Blitz finds Western universities to be duplicitous in their response to a moral crisis. Albert Wohlstetter unveils the real Boris Yeltsin and the motives behind Russian foreign policy. Chandler Rosenberger exposes the false innocence of Serbian mythology. Finally, Stephen W. Walker and Marshall Freeman Harris, who resigned from the State Department in protest over the Clinton administration's handling of Bosnia, dissect the moral facade of the U.S. peace plan.
STJEPAN G. MEŠTROVIĆ, professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Habits of the Balkan Heart, Balkanization of the West, and This Time We Knew.
Number Four: Eastern European Studies
The Conceit of Innocence
0-89096-770-9
$34.95
LC 97-17417. 6x9. 272 pp.
Eastern Europe. Contemporary Affairs.
Publication Date: December 1997.
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