Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security

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Read an excerpt from Worlds Apart.

Worlds Apart tells of a well-meaning foreign policy establishment often deaf to the voices of everyday people. Its focus is the Bosnian War, but its implications extend to any situation that prompts the consideration of military intervention on humanitarian grounds. Ambassador Swanee Hunt served in Vienna during the Bosnian War and was intimately involved in American policy toward the Balkans. During her tenure as ambassador and after, she made scores of trips throughout Bosnia, and the rest of the former Yugoslavia, attempting to understand the costly delays in foreign military intervention. To that end, she had hundreds of conversations with a wide range of politicians, refugees, journalists, farmers, clergy, aid workers, diplomats, soldiers, and others. In Worlds Apart, Hunt’s eighty vignettes alternate between those living out the war and “the internationals” deciding whether or how to intervene. From these stories, most of which she herself witnessed, she draws six lessons applicable to current conflicts throughout the world. These lessons cannot be learned from afar, Hunt says, with insiders and outsiders working apart. Only by bridging those worlds can we build a stronger paradigm of inclusive international security.

Related media

Worlds Apart
by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, The Christian Science Monitor - March 13, 2012
"Former US Ambassador to Austria Swanee Hunt writes hauntingly of the 'grand intentions and missed opportunities' that prevented us from protecting Bosnians."

Mladic arrest: Has the West now learned not to be impartial on war crimes?
by Swanee Hunt, The Christian Science Monitor - May 27, 2011
Swanee Hunt discusses the arrest of notorious war criminal Ratko Mladic.
During the Bosnian conflict, outsiders for too long relied on impartiality to distance themselves from responsibility. Now, with Mladic's arrest, we must send a message that survivors will be at the center of concerns on security.

Opinion: Learning compassion from Srebrenica survivors
by Swanee Hunt, GlobalPost -July 22, 2011
This month marks the 16th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica. For most of the world, memories are fading.

While You Were Away
The Harvard Gazette - September 1, 2011
Worlds Aparts was picked as a recommended read among new books by Harvard faculty.

Of Related Interest
Foreign Service Journal
October 2011

Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security
by Robert Legvold
Foreign Affairs
November/December 2011

Lessons
by Bill Husted, The Denver Post - September 9, 2011

The David Sirota Show
Swanee Hunt discussed Worlds Apart on September 14, 2011. (Listen to the show.)

Worlds Apart
William P. Kiehl, Ed.D.
American Diplomacy
December 2011

Important Look at the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Dr. Bojan Tunguz, Amazon Top 10 Reviewer
on Amazon.com
September 23, 2011

Very important analysis of the events
Review by Eleftarios
on Amazon.com
November 16, 2011

Personal and academic all at the same time
Review by elaine
on Amazon.com
February 13, 2012

Review: Worlds Apart by Swanee Hunt
by Meg @ A Bookish Affair
October 1, 2011

Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security
by Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik
Times Higher Education
November 17, 2011

Author: Empowering Women Empowers Peace Process
By Joe Holley
Houston Chronicle
December 27, 2011

Praise for Worlds Apart

“Swanee Hunt has written an intelligent, insightful, and highly readable account of the Bosnia conflict and America’s response to it. She brings to her analysis the passion appropriate to a firsthand account, together with a critical and sophisticated appreciation for the larger political context. Those interested in lessons important to future policy will not be disappointed. The book is an important addition to the literature on Bosnia, and on the continuing debate over appropriate circumstances for military intervention for humanitarian purposes.” —Ambassador Robert Gallucci, former Dean, Georgetown School of Foreign Service

“The slaughter in Bosnia in the 1990s still haunts policymakers everywhere. With Worlds Apart, Swanee Hunt brings us all into the room alongside the decision-makers at the center of an international crisis, and simultaneously draws important lessons from those events for the resolution of future conflicts. It’s a compelling read for anyone motivated to learn those larger lessons from a tragedy that tested the will of the free world.” —Senator John Kerry, Chair, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

“Good research. Brilliant analysis. Important book. These lessons about global security are especially urgent in light of today’s headlines.” —Dan Rather, internationally acclaimed veteran newscaster

“Ambassador Hunt has given us a bold, firsthand, outspoken book. It comes as close as we’ve gotten to answering the wherefores of Bosnia’s stark violence. Her juxtaposition of inside realities and outside misconceptions is convincing support for the broader lessons she offers us.” —General John Galvin, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University