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Reading between the Lines: The Balkan Borderlands as History of the Modern World, 30 September 2019 — Transcript

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0:18the man welcome to the Academy
0:20Hippolytus appeared on dear mr.
0:23president dr. Ella dear dr. price dear
0:25colleagues dear guests it's my honor and
0:29privilege to welcome you to the Academy
0:31for politician bedroom also in the name
0:33of dr. Kaiser from the Academy I will I
0:36welcome all of you first I would like to
0:39thank the presidency of the sudo stirrup
0:42a gesellschaft for once again a very
0:44fruitful cooperation
0:46many thanks especially to the president
0:49of the association of the gang nutella
0:52we are very glad and grateful for your
0:54wizard once again in Tooting and for
0:56your welcome address right right
0:58afterwards I would also like to thank
1:01dr. Christian hajiman and Victoria
1:04tsumugi for preparing and organizing
1:06this conference together with the
1:09Academy professor dr. Christopher Newman
1:13and dr. you turn out parkas they are
1:15responsible for the program of this
1:18conference thank you so much for your
1:21ideas and your an operation of an really
1:24outstanding academic program the Academy
1:28for politicians own the a cadet Academy
1:31for civic education you could translate
1:33it but you are not forced to do it we
1:38appreciate this cooperation with a
1:40pseudo stoppage shf very much due to the
1:44chosen subjects and due to your
1:46distinguished referees your conference
1:49is introducing enjoy a high reputation
1:52all over Europe this is the 58th
1:58International University week and we are
2:01very glad to once again host it please
2:04allow me to make you familiar with our
2:07institution with the Academy through
2:10Politis appeared on the Academy is a
2:13unique in Germany and probably in whole
2:16Europe it's a unique forum for
2:19communication and information on current
2:21and general topics of both national as
2:25well as in
2:26national political interests the Academy
2:31if a politician building is a meeting
2:32point where politician politicians and
2:36experts in science research and civic
2:39education gather with citizens to
2:42exchange the experience and opinions to
2:46the benefit of policies to be
2:49constructed more citizen frankly since
2:531957 already since 1957 the Academy
2:57Hippolyta Shapiro is dedicated to the
3:00delivery stimulation and cultivation of
3:04political knowledge not only in for
3:06Bavaria but for whole Germany we offer
3:10courses and of course also for some
3:12countries in Europe we offer courses
3:15seminars and conferences on our own
3:17premises here in Tooting as well as
3:20outside in different locations all over
3:23Bavaria
3:24your conference is not only remarkable
3:27with regard to its high scientific
3:30reputation but also with regard to its
3:33significance as a kind of network
3:35meeting for young as well as for
3:39experienced colors working on Southeast
3:42Europe issues the topic of your current
3:46conference borders in Southeast Europe
3:50is obviously very well chosen already
3:54some years ago one of my colleagues of
3:58the universe University the Bundeswehr
4:01the University of the federal armed
4:03forces in Germany who is professor of
4:06international law he drew my attention
4:09to one of the most in my regard one of
4:12the most precise terms and the subject
4:14of borders and I would like to cite the
4:17German philosopher of Christian religion
4:20ban hat very first in German and then in
4:25my own translation I hope it corresponds
4:27well enough to their original quotation
4:29so first the Chairman citation and I
4:34quote defensive attitudes vatsnik
4:38I own the heist it's winter schiedam
4:42above a Muslim noonday min-soo food at
4:45Oneonta Schiedam do you bother to play
4:49find the cleanser dipper hey hey Trent
4:54is doctors in and Biden demand salmon
4:58the transit violated in Dame's it's a
5:01salmon herd forklift and been a part
5:04pass it supplies Trent victims Island
5:09envisioned occurrence assess the sneezes
5:12became is fallen not Wendy kite
5:14unfavorably of an opinion desist and
5:19here my attempt of a proper translation
5:23only an attempt and I quote the border
5:27does indeed also function as negation
5:30that is to say as a distinction but we
5:34must add to this as a distinction that
5:37unites everywhere at the same time the
5:41boundary that separates the realms is
5:45also the boundary common to both the
5:48borders function by holding together
5:53linking and adjoining what separates
5:56separates them at the same time it is
6:01due to the divisive nature of the
6:03broader itself that it is with
6:06mysterious necessity also an
6:09unassailable unifying factor end of
6:13quote
6:15dr. Keiser from the Academy and I wish
6:19you a very successful conference here in
6:22our Academy dealing with this important
6:27subject of borders in Southeast Europe
6:30we are very glad that you are here and
6:33we hope that you enjoy not only the
6:36conference but also your stay here in
6:38could sing thank you very much
6:41[Applause]
7:01ladies and gentlemen dear colleagues and
7:04friends many thanks to Professor moon
7:07dr. Kaiser and the Academy for their
7:10readiness to once again serving as a
7:12cooperation partner and host of this 15
7:15eights in the national university week
7:18thanks for the welcome and for the warm
7:21hospitality we enjoy once more in this
7:24beautiful and prestigious venue my
7:27gratitude goes also to our academic
7:30convenors professor Christoph Norman and
7:33dr. lout Bacchus for establishing an
7:35excellent program and to those who have
7:39organized the event
7:40besides our executives dr. Brian dr.
7:43Hoffman a special thanks goes to
7:45Victoria Shaw moji who stepped into the
7:48organization in a difficult time when
7:51the SOG Secretariat has heavily affected
7:54by sick leave a warm welcome to all
7:57participants who arrived here many of
8:00them after a long travel a special
8:03welcome to the special guests of this
8:05opening event in particular members of
8:08our association and representatives from
8:10the consular Corps in Munich let me now
8:13say a few words about the South East
8:17Europe association which has its
8:19headquarters in Munich and of which I
8:22have been president for the past 19
8:24years the association was founded in
8:271952 in this one of the largest academic
8:30and networking organizations in Germany
8:33we have around 700 members most of them
8:37have an academic background we deal with
8:4016 countries in Southeast Europe by
8:43organizing international conferences
8:45symposiums and workshops and offering
8:48seminars lectures and study trips we
8:51have 20 branches in German University
8:54towns with their own local
8:56programs our networking service focus on
8:59contacts between civil society
9:02organizations and stakeholders with
9:05policymakers particularly in conflict
9:07stations we also do a great deal to
9:10support students and young academics in
9:13the field of Southeast Europe our
9:15flagship in this area is the annual
9:17International University week in Taksim
9:20our aim is to establish long-term
9:22networks between young academics from
9:26Germany and all 16 of our partner
9:29countries the internationally renowned
9:32row and journal suit or permit alone is
9:34a highlight of our wide ranging
9:37publishing activities the shaping the
9:40future workshops have become a fixture
9:43in our schedule at these events selected
9:46places representatives of civil society
9:49politics media and think tanks discuss
9:53current developments in one of our
9:55partners countries and as a strict
9:57regime of the Chatham House Rules and
9:59thus in a safe environment I am very
10:03happy that this year's International
10:06University week has chosen not only a
10:10very timely topic but also one that
10:14needs particular critical critical
10:17attention borders have become a
10:20ubiquitous issue in recent years on the
10:23one hand the changing of borders
10:25returned as an issue on the European
10:28agenda at the beginning of this year
10:31when Serbia and Kosovo discussed a land
10:34swap despite of being framed as an
10:37attempt to solve since 10th of the pins
10:39of two countries most observers feared
10:42that this idea that's a potential to
10:45stir a new conflict in the region and
10:49even to reopen discussions in other
10:51countries that they are long deemed
10:54finished on the other end
10:56beyond the changing of waters their
10:59strengthening or weakening in the face
11:00of rising migration from the global
11:02south depending on which political came
11:05this ask dominated the political agenda
11:09both
11:10in the European Union as well as in the
11:12United States in 2019 as the policies of
11:16Donald Trump and Matteo salvini
11:19exemplified an approach that Boris can
11:21simply be closed without tackling the
11:24roots of migration or consulting with
11:26other countries the recent search of
11:28migrants to Greece from Turkey and the
11:31unwitting suffering on the Balkan route
11:33especially sa exemplified that the
11:36question of how borders can function in
11:39the humane and still activating way has
11:42not yet been solved overall Germans have
11:46their own experiences with borders and
11:49establish to be able to relate to the
11:52suffering stemming from close border
11:55separating families and friends it is as
11:59an interesting coincidence that the
12:01International University week focuses on
12:04the question of waters in the year when
12:07we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the
12:10fall of the Berlin Wall
12:11this event should remind us of the idea
12:15of European borders that's helped in so
12:17many cases to reduce ethnic conflict and
12:20to allow for so peaceful cohabitation of
12:28longtime enemies this reminder is not
12:32only timely when it comes to the
12:34development of the gates of the EU in
12:37Serbia and Kosovo but also in the old
12:40member states the brexit comes with
12:42danger of a hard border in Ireland
12:45borders are you big this issue and the
12:49ideas and imagination says there are
12:53also strongly related to people's
12:55experiences at national narratives I am
12:59just especially happy that also this
13:02year the International University week
13:05has gathered young scholars and senior
13:08experts from 20 countries who can share
13:11their perspectives on this issue our
13:14participants come this year from Albania
13:18Austria Belgium Bosnia in toxic
13:22Bulgaria France Greece Germany Ireland
13:25Italy Kosovo Lebanon Norse mocked
13:29Macedonia the Netherlands Poland Sweden
13:31Switzerland Turkey and the United States
13:34they have different disciplinary
13:36backgrounds from both social sciences
13:39and the humanities but they all share a
13:43conviction was the value of debate and
13:45the importance of the argument I am just
13:49looking forward to a week of interesting
13:51debates and sort provoking presentations
13:54that will not only help to improve our
13:57academic work and sharpen your analysis
14:00but that will also contribute to mutual
14:03understanding by looking at common
14:05topics so different national
14:07disciplinary or also historical dances
14:11as us wish you all a week full of
14:14interesting experiences and encounters
14:17and now I look forward to the
14:19introduction of our academic conveners
14:22and professor brumis keynote before
14:25ending business address let me switch
14:28into for a moment into German language
14:31for a personal addressed to mrs. guten
14:34cool man
14:35whose employment as a secretary of the
14:38SOG will terminate at the end of October
14:41this year
14:42leave a forkful month season and Frank
14:46knows that after Naxos Nahum studium and
14:48unmask the applause in german istic on
14:51TBS and liquid state is curtain infil
14:54Arden as Angus Delta in the audience in
14:56endings the SOB betrayed not me as I
15:00don't rise again we had indeed some
15:02Island rises in October not 5000 19 yet
15:06at a Tisch character and won't even wish
15:09Dontrell as president there is also hope
15:12a gazelle shaft Ankush in of none
15:14dysprosium on the Madeira the mutilation
15:18and that's in the opposite shown also
15:20sang Chef sacred they aren't there is a
15:22shaft by the optimist even average will
15:25last long in desert also hypocrisy a
15:27Franzi Emma I'm a superelastic insisted
15:30on who competent Astrid ones are Albert
15:33the often turbulent inside
15:35the public of our hug is not sitting
15:38laying hide mystery fear in Java he
15:40hosts awesome on the for equation
15:42answered super Duncan well in I scooter
15:45feeding Wolford in were standard
15:47solution for Eileen I know good news on
15:50tight and releases and I wouldn't in a
15:52zone euros Lydia and armours that's
15:56pursuing the traditional sorry kept me
15:58in my default when you know steamer I'm
16:00telephone in the Avedon Myers also heard
16:02cup Nick nobody Emma faultless one even
16:06importance on an average booster does it
16:09is doesn't even respond harmed and
16:11affirmed a latest hub we have the fish
16:14but Inka must fit is it also all /
16:16gazelle Sophia's version in and wouldn't
16:19you began can annoy your fastest limbs
16:22on since there's a respectful and
16:24thankful that the specific ones illegal
16:26isotherm Thank You Christoph Norman my
16:41goodness I like the segue from
16:44Oktoberfests
16:45to presenting Who I am that is not in
16:48any ways represents what he thinks of me
16:50or how he knows me I'm sure I'm a much
16:52more serious man than than than that as
16:56you can hear from his presentation but
16:58it's nice to be back
17:00seeing him we had a wonderful time last
17:02beginning of last year to set up a
17:04conference that tried to explore in many
17:07ways legacies of empire that certainly
17:09borderline dynamics played a part of it
17:11whether or not that will actually end up
17:13in an edited volume we're still looking
17:17into that but that's something that I
17:19would like to follow up on perhaps a
17:21little bit here today as dr. Newman has
17:25suggested I move move about and deal
17:30with very different geographies but the
17:33themes seemed to continuously be
17:35reinforced by questions that I've been
17:38asking as a graduate student already and
17:40questions that afflicted me personally
17:43during the events of the 1990s late
17:451990s in particular
17:47and in fact I had won points 2001 I
17:50believe spent a seminar just like you
17:54here with such an organism with such an
17:57organized setting I can't quite remember
17:59the theme of it but no doubt they had to
18:02do with the violence in the Balkans and
18:04young going concerns about how we're
18:07gonna delineate and differentiate and
18:09separate combatants both past present
18:14and potentially future so I would like
18:18to use this time I am assuming I have
18:20some 45 minutes to 50 minutes to discuss
18:24the theme of border 1 that's obviously
18:27an enduring problem in which Europe's
18:30history and indeed the global the global
18:33story is very much informed by how
18:37geographies are articulated by a Qatar
18:42cartographic language a language that
18:45also however is very much a language of
18:49exchange in ways that are not necessary
18:53ultimately resulting in the final border
18:57that we've often study or we actually
18:59put down in form of a map in the text
19:03that we publish writing about certain
19:05conflicted areas I'm suggesting that if
19:11we revisit the late 19th century the
19:15process in which the borders of newly
19:18created States after the Berlin Congress
19:20were in the constant process of
19:22negotiation renegotiation that is
19:26something quite obvious with the
19:28constant redrawing if you will of the
19:31boundaries something that I've written
19:32quite a bit about and some of you in
19:34this room have as well but my pursuits
19:40now of a new way a new angle of studying
19:43the border and how it historically can
19:46help inform and shape our language and
19:49approach to dealing with contemporary
19:51border debates about borders or
19:55conflicts over borders
19:57is to remind us again and again that
20:00there are people whose lives are
20:01directly affected by it
20:03anthropologists in particular but as
20:05Peter silence also was one of the
20:08founders as an historian with a
20:10multi-person airy kind of approach
20:12regarding the boundaries between Spain
20:15and France there is this phenomenon in
20:19which people who live and straddle live
20:21along in straddle borders what we would
20:24call the phenomena of borderlands has
20:26actually been an important subfield of
20:29study initiated by those who looking at
20:33Latin America the frontiers between the
20:36expanding US States and Mexico and the
20:40Comanche Empire of the 19th century and
20:43in fact contemporaries of that very
20:45process that helped inform borderland
20:48Studies contemporaries of the middle to
20:52late last quarter of the 19th century of
20:55those Comanches of those Spanish and
21:00European migrants who clashed in this
21:05environmentally rich region of Southwest
21:08United States and Mexico Texas and
21:11California were those of the southern
21:14southeastern Europe in the Balkans and I
21:17always highlight this to my students
21:20that it's quite a remarkable story that
21:22in with such a rich material for
21:26comparison which I still find very
21:28frustrating that we are not doing that
21:30enough looking at comparable cases and
21:33dynamics that have very different
21:35results often but that's all for the
21:38better for us as students of borders and
21:40conflicts around borders be you a
21:42political scientist an anthropologist or
21:44historian or a combination of all it
21:46behooves you to actually explore other
21:48cases outside of your area of interests
21:51so learning from this borderland studies
21:57someone who has engaged in this kind of
21:59comparative research in the past and I'm
22:01an ongoing project today in fact working
22:04with colleagues at Stanford University
22:06and SMU in Texas we are working on
22:11a theme that is becoming increasingly
22:13important interest enough interest to a
22:16number of different disciplines sub
22:18disciplines and that's the environment
22:19so I wish to present to you here a
22:22little bit of a taste of what I am
22:24exploring now with Southeast Europe
22:27especially Western Balkans as one of my
22:30case studies I'm looking at areas around
22:32the Red Sea the Persian Gulf and the
22:36Americas as other comparisons but I will
22:39leave its considering the theme of this
22:41week-long conference the South East
22:46Europe Western Balkans the frontiers of
22:49what would constitute and still remains
22:52one of renegotiation as we know from
22:55last year the borders between what is
22:58and what is not cassava Albania and
23:01Montenegro and I hope that this will in
23:07many ways understanding the kinds of
23:09conflicts and the adjustments that
23:10people are making and especially the
23:12characters who are introduced to this
23:14contested space those who have been
23:16uprooted from elsewhere and are expected
23:18to serve certain kind of demographic
23:21political economic cultural purposes as
23:24migrants as refugees as settlers to
23:27these now contested areas and more
23:30importantly the valuation of the nature
23:32of this very rich an interesting area
23:35will be the theme that I encourage you
23:38will be something that hopefully can
23:40inspire inspire you to take on new
23:44research topics in the future for the
23:48last century and a half associates of
23:50finance capitalism have sought to
23:51regulate the economic productivity of
23:54historically elusive peoples in the past
23:57I have sought to explore the documented
23:59fringes of failed qualities in conflict
24:02with this expansive capitalist regime in
24:06these studies I hope to upset the
24:08process in which the meted narratives of
24:10history somehow place and assert a
24:13certain way of studying border disputes
24:18settlement around boundaries and
24:20subsequent diplomatic
24:23negotiations over what to do after these
24:26borders have been set I am today to
24:29eliminate the contingent factors that
24:31contributed to new relations between
24:33human communities within the confines of
24:35border lines that proved entirely
24:38malleable in shifting breakable reformed
24:45to shifting conditions of Imperial
24:47transition ethereal and transition in
24:49which was an ongoing process it was not
24:52a predetermined one it was not one that
24:54for the peoples involved in this process
24:55did not know what the final results
24:57would be and this is crucial for us as
25:00historians we did not know where this
25:04was going in 1878 1879 1880 81 there was
25:09no working model in fact this was a
25:12germinating ongoing Laboratory of
25:17history that was yet to be written in
25:21part I am speaking about the
25:23commodification of nature as it impacts
25:25how lands turning into borderlands take
25:28on conflicting importance in a critical
25:32period after 1878 the Western Balkans
25:34became ideal zones of contention for
25:37numerous layerings if you will of human
25:40organization be it a states be they
25:43corporations be they small clusters of
25:47communities in the critical period of
25:51the 1878 depending on the scale of
25:55analysis the inflictions of the
25:57consequences of Imperial bankruptcy
25:59which indeed the Ottoman Empire had been
26:01at this time declared itself bankrupt
26:03and stopped paying its debts to mostly
26:07French Belgian and British banks at the
26:10time differed greatly in these regions
26:13so the consequences of this process the
26:15context of bankruptcy the war between
26:20Russia somewhat under stealth Hoff's
26:23Berg Empire and Ottomans in these
26:26contested zones became an in part a
26:29ongoing negotiation between very very
26:32different actors who are often not
26:34present in the way we write about this
26:39more it was the imposition of various
26:41measures of authority delineated as
26:44boundaries sometimes that many
26:46indigenous peoples could never accept
26:48that conflicts over nature
26:51and how it would be used along these
26:53border lands where Mars were most
26:56pronounced in these parts of the Balkans
27:00we would observe for decades and
27:02especially inconsistent intersection of
27:04capacities versus necessities among
27:06locals at the time the larger region was
27:10in the middle of a dramatic shift in
27:11global importance impacting Belgian
27:14German Italian maybe luxembourg
27:17companies considering my colleague there
27:19in the back as much as those indigenous
27:21interlocutors compelled to accommodate
27:23or resist alike in the frame of this
27:27growing interface between what would be
27:28imperialist projects to settle disputes
27:30over the region I want to take us
27:32through some interesting examples of how
27:35conflicted and changing metrics of value
27:38toward water sources firewood fisheries
27:41grazing lands forests and even trails
27:44animated this world more crucially
27:47conflicts over how to value the lands in
27:49question inform the frequent adaptations
27:52of the borderline economies in question
27:55more crucially still these exchanges
27:58proved entirely forgotten as new events
28:00shaped subsequent historical analysis
28:03meaning we have not really had today's
28:06they have not a left an imprint into his
28:07geography and yet they were foundational
28:10to what happened subsequently that these
28:14events the personalities the polity is
28:16discussed their failed to survive post
28:19Ottoman in house Berg history cannot
28:21determine how we scholars approach the
28:23borderlands of Southeast Europe and this
28:26is I think an ethical issue for us to
28:28actually engage and appreciate for these
28:31kinds of dynamics are at play today they
28:33are actors on the ground yesterday today
28:36and tomorrow who will most likely never
28:38be registered at on record but they will
28:43have contributed greatly to how these
28:45border disputes will be ultimately
28:46resolved or perpetuate it
28:51in fact it is these over la overshadowed
28:54tensions over how these lands were
28:56affected by borders that ultimately
28:58inform the ways we today lose sight of
29:00lessons otherwise misinterpreted by
29:03anachronistic uses of ethno national
29:06team analogies so I don't know if anyone
29:09here is actually involved in processes
29:11of negotiation or writing policy papers
29:15and advising individuals who have
29:19considerable responsibility in the
29:22forthcoming disputes in Southeast Europe
29:26let alone the larger world Syria Yemen
29:28Iraq Saudi Arabia countries that I'm
29:34currently engaged in most likely they're
29:37topographies their geographies there but
29:39they're there maps will be changing
29:41dramatically next couple years and that
29:43will certainly have an impact on us here
29:45in Europe we go back to studying
29:50perceptions of these events by investing
29:52in identifying threads of agent
29:55activists from the shadows hidden but
29:58nevertheless playing foundation roles in
30:00the development of border regimes after
30:021878 I will primarily discuss today how
30:06uprooted peoples faced a conflictual
30:08relationship with local peoples
30:10inhabiting lands targeted for both both
30:12boundary delineation and resettlement
30:15for long-term security reasons crucially
30:19the arrival of these refugees migrants
30:20with state support led to a new economy
30:23of exploitation the clashing needs of
30:27locals versus those refugees they host
30:29that confuse the subsequent valuation of
30:31forest pasture land streams and offshore
30:34fisheries and therefore also animated
30:37the discussions the debates and
30:38struggles over borders as different
30:42constituencies valued the lands under
30:44contest differently conflict that ensued
30:46exposes how borders were
30:48instrumentalized
30:50too often blur as much as impose
30:52conflicted sovereignties adopting a
30:55critical investigation of the last
30:57century of border controls and the
30:58management of newly strategic natural
31:01resources found along them
31:02ultimately upsets I argue fixed methods
31:05of analyzing the world and warns of the
31:08need to be more careful with border
31:09issues today it is the readjustments of
31:15power in the Balkans after the Russell
31:17Ottoman war of 1877 78 that offers us
31:20insights into the underlying tensions
31:22with boundaries at moments of
31:24instability and precarity in framing the
31:28context of negotiating borders as a
31:29means of resolving and imposing at the
31:32same time new claims to Authority and
31:34thus new measures of valuation of the
31:36resources found in these borderland
31:38areas I am situating contentious
31:41politics as inspired by Charles Tilly in
31:43my old professor at the new school
31:45within a new range of researchable
31:48methods of empire that I would suggest
31:50that hopefully some of you will embrace
31:52at some point the regions of interest
31:55here proved that Imperial state
31:57authority throughout the critical 1880s
31:59to 1920 period were precarious at best
32:06the period the period ization is telling
32:09in that it mirrors events throughout the
32:11world as I mentioned already in which
32:13industrial scale projects required
32:15enormous and often not so enormous or
32:18modest foreign capital investment along
32:20with huge amounts of pliable cheap labor
32:24the resulting intersection of these
32:27economic needs led in much of the
32:29Balkans took the kinds of interactions
32:31deemed crucial to forming the policies
32:34associated with modern state building
32:36narratives considering the roads the
32:39bridges the railroads the Portland's all
32:42the things that will come subsequently
32:43to the agreement to delineate and divide
32:46up Ottoman Balkans after 1878 is a point
32:51that I wish to highlight that has
32:53valuable comparative possibilities that
32:57these regions prove marginal to
33:00subsequent national history or Agra fees
33:01ultimately helps make an ongoing
33:03methodological point namely we are
33:06dealing with distortions of importance
33:08by the fact ignored regions or gaps of
33:11analysis necessarily erase contributions
33:14to the modern story of
33:15listen imperialism general what's
33:18happening in the Western Balkans at this
33:19time is part of the larger global story
33:21of capitalism failing to see these
33:25primary animating forces of interests
33:27clashing with people affected by borders
33:29leads to failed policies of conflict
33:32resolution that inevitably follow in
33:35other words events in forgotten spaces
33:37seemingly little of little importance to
33:39global storylines miss out on the
33:41considerable tensions arising from
33:43modest subtle daily interactions between
33:46agents of capitalism and indigenous
33:50interlocutors again we as active
33:53participants in this process of talking
33:56about borders maybe even influencing the
33:58negotiation the reporters need to be
34:00sensitive to a number of people who are
34:02otherwise discarded dismissed ignored it
34:06is their lives who are affected by these
34:08borders and it's they who in response to
34:10these affections will ultimately decide
34:13if your interventions are going to
34:16succeed or failure fail at the heart of
34:22these dynamic moments at the fringes of
34:23history are those human interactions
34:25with nature quintessential concerns of
34:28any settlement process procuring
34:30resources for simple survival no matter
34:33how a modest the alien set of the
34:35population may have been often leaves
34:38imprints of Greater imperialist
34:40Operations difficult to decipher
34:42otherwise so we need to start also
34:44thinking about the logistics of
34:46providing for those found on Borderlands
34:49that I think has an interesting way for
34:52us to open up new kinds of questions
34:55when we do research on these topics I am
34:57advocating using archival research to
34:59discover how various sub Balter and
35:01refugee migrant constituencies and their
35:04burdened host communities identified a
35:06pragmatic need to manipulate competing
35:09and pure claims to survive survive the
35:11winter we have every season new waves of
35:15migrants who are sometimes found in
35:17themselves and conditions in which they
35:19are not cared for they will find ways to
35:21survive if they don't then that's
35:24another thing but the
35:26the resulting conflicts especially for
35:28those who are expected to host them I
35:30think is an important animating force
35:32the for us to keep in mind to appreciate
35:36the intimacy's created by conflict over
35:38Borderlands and the increased interest
35:40in the wealth of these regions nature we
35:42can also adopt both macro and intimately
35:45micro scales of analysis in order to get
35:47that what's actually going on the
35:51arrival of refugees to these areas was
35:53the critical force of consequence at the
35:56heart of the conflict that followed
35:57their arrival was procuring supplies to
35:59care for their long-term settlement
36:02securing off offseason animal feed
36:05proved vital to longer-term
36:07influence for those who still claimed
36:09authority over entire ecosystems now
36:11found along resettlement campaigns these
36:16once inaccessible constituencies were
36:18now facing invasion and subsequent loss
36:21of their nature their responses are
36:24critical for us to date how did they
36:26respond to the fact that now they would
36:28have to bear the burden of hosting
36:30refugees from elsewhere newfound
36:35opportunities to influence movements of
36:37herds those human communities thus human
36:39communities who follow these hurts took
36:43my animals now herds of animals of sheep
36:45of other grazing animals accompany the
36:49negotiations over the redirection of
36:52resources once seasonally accessed for
36:55only local consumption and they're used
36:57to trade and make income in periods of
37:01surplus as these valued products of
37:04local nature gained new value to those
37:06inhabiting neighboring valleys or ports
37:09the struggle over rights and power of
37:12the modern state become obvious the
37:15sudden shifts in value of local
37:16production changed the personal lives as
37:19well as commercial fortunes of those
37:20living on the ground and open up entire
37:23new horizons for action by state
37:26authorities who for in the case of these
37:28regions were non-existent prior to this
37:30period the subsequent tales of
37:34opportunity opportunity investment off
37:38often profited while upsetting local
37:41supply chains so profiting from the
37:44upsetting of local communities is a
37:46dangerous dynamic that is often
37:50disconnected in the narrative of these
37:52borderland stories they were a
37:54orientating Logistics of provisioning
37:57new kinds of Imperial subjects along now
37:59imposed borders would never accommodate
38:02the diplomatic negotiations taking place
38:04in faraway Berlin
38:05so while diplomats were negotiating
38:07there were other dynamics going on the
38:08ground and the disconnect often meant
38:11going back to Berlin and renegotiating
38:14these boundaries as different qualities
38:20found along border lines in a
38:21negotiation compare competed with each
38:24other over revalued natural resources we
38:26note the limits of traditional methods
38:28of conflict analysis and resolution in
38:31the Balkans local and regional economies
38:33adapted with the particular tension
38:35around illegal exploitation of resources
38:38increasingly coveted by formal agents of
38:40state expected to manage these resources
38:42are these regions so behaviors that were
38:46once day-to-day once suddenly become
38:49police and often become criminalized
38:52that had dramatic consequence on the
38:55relationship between borders borderlands
38:57and the peoples who were expected to
38:58live there as the natural acids of once
39:02isolated autonomously governed homelands
39:05became zones of settlement of outsiders
39:07the forest pastures and lakes of people
39:10become framed administrative ly as state
39:13assets that acquire new value similarly
39:16state officials who negotiate ways to
39:19repay debts start allocating these same
39:22assets to private interest often very
39:24very foreign capitalist ones such
39:29valuations or revaluations reflecting
39:31calculations rarely explicit in any of
39:33the documents we use the study these
39:35border conflicts means the traditional
39:37practices of the local indigenous
39:38populations become targets for
39:40regulation kind of an unfair exchange
39:43the the force the the the imposition and
39:48to change and transform is put on those
39:50people who are the most vulnerable and
39:52the ones who are most victimized by this
39:54process the resulting often violent
39:59struggle to protect their respective
40:01claims to their nature on newly declared
40:04strategic lands has broad range of
40:06consequences only complicated further
40:08with the arrival again of these refugees
40:10that come in waves in this part of the
40:12region it's not only the 1860s 1870s
40:14they come again and again up into the
40:17Balkan Wars to fully capture the
40:24significant transitional period that is
40:26still conflated with broader abstract
40:29notions of reform and modernity in the
40:31context of these empires or the
40:33subsequent states that would be created
40:36out of them we focus on a narrow region
40:38that today reen's remains volatile as
40:40indigenous peoples and ways of migrants
40:42over the 20th century have adjusted anew
40:44to larger regional and global forces
40:49command over the resources that sustain
40:51unmodern economies meant living with
40:54Ecology's in very different ways than
40:57would be expected with the mousee
40:59suddenly becoming of global importance
41:02from 1878 onwards this once forgotten
41:06region turned valuable both for the
41:08diplomatic struggle but also for Ottoman
41:10montenegrin Habsburg state regulators
41:12who were commanded or to settle the
41:14region and exploit its nature's again
41:18the forest valleys and plains of mouse
41:20or country suddenly took on new
41:23diplomatic and commercial value
41:24authority over these despair over two
41:27disparate natives who were still trying
41:29to struggle to maintain some kind of
41:31control over these natural resources
41:33meant remaking their identities formerly
41:36as legal subjects of not local
41:38authorities but those of sovereigns
41:40compelled to surrender their nature to
41:42the market as per new treaties new debts
41:46new new regimes of borrowing leads to
41:50new kinds of conflicts and this would be
41:52a consistent one which would force those
41:54who were facing to have to force to
41:57surrender these assets to dine their
42:00dynamism of this exchange all
42:02the impacted how they identified
42:05themselves there may be a useful way
42:11therefore to rethink two parallel Drive
42:13of rationalizing the Balkans in this
42:15period and how conflicts today begin and
42:18end by settlement numeration
42:22objectification of the new tools of
42:26empire locals would be forced to yield
42:28to demands of global capitalism in their
42:32settlement by way of treaty they would
42:34be subordinates to the market pay taxes
42:37and surrender their nature to alien
42:39sovereignties with very little or no
42:42compensation this correspond at times
42:46with equally disparate in violent
42:47moments of actualizing the theory of
42:49nature's usefulness no longer as a
42:51common resource of spiritual sanctuary
42:53but of fiscal balance for authorities in
42:56Istanbul or somewhere else in some other
42:59capital and balkans pushing to make
43:02nature productive meant those travelers
43:05as a stenographer x' adventurers and
43:07diplomats interacting with these natives
43:13that made them act activist as well they
43:16became the observers of this process and
43:18actually started to become in many ways
43:21the the resource for subsequent efforts
43:24to settle these border conflicts and you
43:27see these kinds of let's say itinerants
43:33diplomats still today right
43:35you still either whether they take the
43:36form of journalists who write big thick
43:39volumes about peoples of this region or
43:41they end up working for some think-tank
43:45this is dynamic as well has an
43:47interesting imprint on the story a story
43:48of borders which I can't I can get into
43:51later if you want in Q&A if such a thing
43:53will be possible the times clashing uses
43:57of nature read as different claims of
43:59sovereignty and this would often be
44:02overshadowed however by our later need
44:05to understand change in these regions as
44:07products of sectarian Wars and
44:09nationalist projects on nation building
44:11projects as such it may be fruitful to
44:14let these local contexts
44:16speak to us without subordinating them
44:18to the social science methodologies are
44:20in entrenched his geographies that have
44:23been subsequently dominant in how we
44:26tell these stories
44:29indeed that as the natural assets of
44:31these readings are framed administrative
44:33Lee in the documents I'm reading as
44:35state assets they acquire new value
44:37largely mediated by market forces and
44:42therefore the traditional practices of
44:44the local indigenous populations become
44:46targets for new kinds of regulation and
44:48policing it opens up entirely new
44:50disciplines of policing and enforcing
44:55state authority many of our
44:56anthropologists social scientists who
44:58whose traditions are drawn from this
45:00very kind of moment this ideal moment of
45:03becoming now activist partners in this
45:05process of studying and advocating how
45:09to control the the nature of these local
45:12peoples the fight for what these are the
45:20refugees that I'm referring to as well
45:22sometimes coming in this cellar is
45:23expected to gain from their new homes
45:25meant another set of calculations that
45:28were not personal but we became
45:30increasingly framed as rational the
45:33availability built the this ongoing
45:36availability of freelancing agents of
45:38capital who became intermediaries of for
45:41instance lumber and mineral companies
45:43amid these shifting settlements provided
45:46other lines of credit that would become
45:48important for us to study because they
45:50were the ones we would leave the imprint
45:51on in documents they were the ones who
45:53leave left a trail paper trail behind
45:56but we should not be subordinate to how
45:58they framed these interactions that
46:01borderland dynamics here attempts to
46:05address the serious issues of hundreds
46:07of thousands of displaced peoples
46:08unintentionally imposed a bond between
46:10the governed and regimes of night in
46:13nature management such alliances of
46:16necessity were strategic and came at the
46:18expense of indigenous qualities
46:20sometimes sometimes not so considering
46:23such cases it is clear that the central
46:25concern for the hundreds of thousands of
46:27involuntary migrants and
46:29host was to ensure that confiscated
46:31lands would be redistributed to the
46:33right people a process in which the
46:35entirely continued politics of local
46:37state relations becomes clear moving
46:40forward if we consider for now the
46:44violence in COSO amounts there and and
46:46scroller between 1878 and 1881 a
46:50critical period in Albanian Geographic
46:53mythology it but if we think of it not
46:57as an Albanian struggle but one between
46:59mobilized refugees and local hosts we
47:02immediately appreciate the subsequent
47:04years of interactions in these same at
47:06her areas better
47:07I suggest that land and the nature out
47:11of what it came was a mechanism by which
47:15prominent locals and government
47:17officials could influence both refugees
47:19and locals within the lines of newly
47:21marked borders so that's kind of a
47:23research team if you will while refugee
47:28communities especially refugee
47:30communities may have been the
47:31beneficiaries of policies that hoped
47:33secure stability in the region by
47:35putting them in large numbers along
47:37newly created borders there is evidence
47:40to suggest that state officials also saw
47:42them as potential loyal agents who could
47:45help implement many of the government
47:47centralization reforms that were still
47:49received hostile ii-in in other parts of
47:52the Empire
47:53so Borderlands and the Balkans became
47:56laboratories if you will for subsequent
47:58regimes of governing this disparate
48:02Empire in this respect the immigration
48:05of hundreds of thousands of people
48:06provided the a median state within an
48:08opportunity to expand the reach of the
48:10state into previously inaccessible and
48:12hostile but now strategic frontier
48:15regions both in these areas that we're
48:18talking about but again as working
48:19models as experienced many of these
48:21officials would then go on elsewhere in
48:24Yemen being Kuwait's be it in Libya
48:27indeed the and this is something very
48:29interesting to consider the the osce
48:32creature that comes and services and
48:35becomes the expert of border conflicts
48:37resolutions or UN officials they
48:40basically are imported
48:42different parts of the world their way
48:43of understanding the boundaries of our
48:45deaths
48:45reflective of their previous experiences
48:48but is it necessarily one reflective of
48:50the conditions that they are facing at
48:51that moment indeed the okay so indeed
48:59the ability of the state to redistribute
49:00land wealth in Kosova and other to those
49:03newly arrived constituents required the
49:05cooperation of large numbers of
49:06borderland inhabitants new or old a
49:09requirement not lost on community
49:11leaders representing the interests of
49:13both locals and refugees being slowly
49:16marginalized by two subsequent
49:18adaptations as a result there are many
49:21instances when refugee community leaders
49:23directly allied with government
49:25officials at the expense of working with
49:27their indigenous host communities and if
49:30you're curious there in fact what we
49:32would call today ethnic albanians
49:34on both sides of this divide so you had
49:36clashes between people who in theory at
49:38least in his geography are supposedly
49:40being sharing a common agenda at this
49:42stage where clearly that's not the case
49:43the struggle over distributing land and
49:46the exploitation of nature was one that
49:49was internecine only inter nesting
49:53however if we accept the narrative of
49:56posts Ottoman history ography the
50:00resulting scramble for leverage against
50:01these encroachments on local interests
50:04led many to seek out new patrons which
50:06often generated the kind of opportunity
50:08competing great powers required to gain
50:11a foothold and what had previously been
50:13inaccessible areas deep in the Ottoman
50:15Balkans
50:16so Italians Habsburg authorities and
50:19even newly created states like Serbia
50:21and Romania also gains now new access
50:24new influence foreign
50:32prominent members of the refugees from
50:33pogo'd itza such as Hasan Bey Mustafa
50:36and Ibrahim openly Lobby government
50:39authorities based in choler to
50:40compensate for their financial losses as
50:42a result of their expulsion from newly
50:44created Montenegro part of that
50:48compensation included the redistribution
50:49of valuable land all along the frontier
50:52with the newly created Montenegro that
50:54had once belonged to other local farming
50:57Albanian communities facing such a
51:01disruption in their lives these
51:03involuntary host communities having to
51:06sacrifice much of their valuable land to
51:08these refugees who secured considerable
51:10power as a result ignited a period of
51:13confrontation that is not registered in
51:15subsequent generations of nationalist
51:17historiography in time just left them
51:20vulnerable to future mobilization by
51:22Montenegro or various factions within
51:25the larger Catholic Church universe and
51:27this often led to conflicts between
51:30those who were supported by Italy or the
51:34austro-hungarian Empire a factor that is
51:36especially important in the period
51:38leading up to the Balkan wars of 1912
51:40when they would actually be a new regime
51:43of border drawing that ultimately would
51:45lead to a very contested creation of a
51:49Albanian state of some form all this is
51:52intricate intricately linked to the
51:54constantly ordering of the state
51:55bureaucracy that was expected to manage
51:57these complicated zones of awkwardness
51:59using the language of anthropologists
52:02and seeing one measure was the decision
52:05to transform the districts under
52:07particular threat by redrawing the
52:09internal administrative boundaries that
52:12redistributed local state power and hope
52:14to dilute some of the power of
52:16disruptive local coalition's to further
52:18afield so the internal boundaries of the
52:22Ottoman administration itself is
52:23transforming it's not just bounded
52:26between competing sovereign states but
52:28we should also think about the
52:29consequences has on internal states
52:33delineation of authority an example of
52:37this was the consolidation of the
52:39districts of Mata metadata and your
52:41squadron the responsibility of
52:43administrating this newly consolidated
52:45mega
52:46a gene was given to dervish Peet's
52:48dervish bas pasha Pardo based in scholar
52:53the new administration did not waste
52:55much time in completely restructuring
52:57the way in which local economies were
52:59organized and how local resources would
53:01be exploited in each of the sub
53:03districts dervish bas Asha negotiated
53:05and then implemented the distribution of
53:07land to certain kinds of refugees
53:10especially those from just on the other
53:12side of the border in Montenegro this
53:14ostensibly settled these refugees and
53:17immediately made them constituents to a
53:19state that was proactively trying to
53:21encourage infringement zombies again
53:26settled borders that were still highly
53:28disputed by these strategically located
53:30refugees just on the other side of what
53:32used to be their homeland the problem
53:36again was that locals who were who used
53:38this land previously were now the loot
53:41they lost out in this process the
53:46ensuing violent protests actually forced
53:48the state to issue yet another set of
53:50laws that both empowered that empowered
53:53it in new ways to confiscate and
53:55redistribute people's land even more
53:57aggressively and generalize a
53:58compensation plan just in case victims
54:01of this land grab started to collaborate
54:03amongst themselves so there was now
54:05Eldorado reports now concerned that they
54:08are actually now exchanging notes and
54:09they began to realize they can't trust
54:11any kinds of promises established in
54:14these negotiated redrawing of borders
54:16and distribution of resources this means
54:20that the often that often the state was
54:22compelled to use one community's
54:24resources to placate another's rebellion
54:26a policy that had created the conditions
54:28after 1878 for an endless spiral of
54:31violence disgruntlement and instability
54:32in some of these areas now today's
54:35scholars fixated on finding the roots of
54:37post Ottoman nation in the violence
54:39reveal revealed here often assert this
54:41was a result of ethno national tennis
54:43between rival ethnic groups or religious
54:47groups if in many cases we should resist
54:50the temptation to reduce complicated
54:52diverse and ever shifting conflicts like
54:54these between many different
54:55stakeholders to be simply a product of
54:58Prime
54:58ethnic animosities instead appreciating
55:03how these reforms were justified in the
55:04face of local opposition helps better
55:06understand the long-term consequences
55:08that Imperial frontiers had on the
55:11fragmented local polity and the range of
55:14possibilities available to many
55:16different stakeholders involved in the
55:20Western Balkans we would will observe
55:22for decades from the 1870s onwards and
55:25especially inconsistent intersection of
55:27capacities versus necessities in respect
55:30to local regional and global perceptions
55:32of nature's value the larger region of
55:35this time would be in the middle of a
55:37dramatic shift in global importance
55:38impacting outsiders from Swiss Danish
55:41Italian German companies to the as well
55:44as those indigenous potential
55:46interlocutors willing to accommodate or
55:48resist alike in the frame of this
55:50growing interface between what would be
55:54in peerless projects with the immediate
55:56give-and-take of a smaller historic
55:58scale I want us I want to take us
56:01through some interesting examples or I
56:03took us through some examples of how
56:04conflicted and changing metrics of value
56:10toward often modest resources like
56:14freshwater simple things like this that
56:16sustaining community or does not Anna
56:20made the world large and small so it was
56:24indeed critical that the resulting
56:26attempts have settled refugees and the
56:28administration's built around the
56:30enclaves came with corresponding
56:32infrastructure development and economic
56:33inducements for the new arrivals to stay
56:37and fight for their newly granted lands
56:40it animated new movements as a result
56:43and crucially for this region you begin
56:46to see cities becoming new points of
56:47exchange for many of those who once
56:50cherished lands of isolation were now
56:52suddenly forced to be engaged and were
56:56part of international conflict in other
57:02words events in forgotten spaces of
57:04seemingly little importance to the
57:05Scramble for Africa the great game or
57:08variations of these global storylines
57:10miss out on the considerable operation
57:12tensions arising from modest subtle
57:15daily interactions between forgotten
57:16agents of capitalism and indigenous ones
57:20resisting the infringement of this
57:22juggernaut the Netherlands of seemingly
57:28backwater compounds that in times of
57:32frenzy like the California Gold Rush or
57:34the diamond boom in Southern Africa can
57:36turn modest peripheral enclaves of
57:38settlement into furnaces of political
57:39intrigue commercial opportunity and
57:41violent competition at the heart of
57:45these dynamic moments at the fringes of
57:46history proved with a new interest in
57:49human interactions with nature again
57:52proposing as a way moving forward
57:54understanding borders in Borderlands
57:56proved to be quintessential concerns of
57:59any settlement in subsequent conflicted
58:03moments and not again you see that
58:06throughout the world struggles over
58:08diamond mines in gold mines throughout
58:10Africa forests that include the forests
58:14of this region that were Assad Russia is
58:18emerging our interesting it gives us
58:23interesting insights into this dynamic
58:24this inter light into relation between
58:26nature the environment and the
58:28borderland phenomena
58:29I just advocate appreciating the
58:31intermediate intimacy is created by
58:32shape-shifting indigenous informs of
58:34factors actors in conflict over
58:37Borderlands and the wealth of these
58:38regions nature these tales of
58:41opportunistic investment in up settings
58:43to upsetting supply chains reorienting
58:46reorienting logistics of provisioning
58:49outposts with relatively small human
58:51resources demanded that great powers
58:53negotiate with local regional
58:55inhabitants who had often entirely
58:57different metrics to value that nature
58:59and those became ultimate opportunities
59:02for the likes of these men here the map
59:07as a modern tool of stuff state is
59:09accepted its function as a tool of
59:12delineation no longer challenged by the
59:16Berlin Congress's any ambiguity could
59:18lead to war between polities that
59:20claimed conflict have conflicted claims
59:22of sovereignty over territories
59:24inhabitants the map therefore served as
59:27a particular served a particular
59:29function in an expansive period of
59:31Western imperialism marked as lines in
59:34the map institutions and actors are
59:36assumed to normalize and naturalize a
59:38special order and within between these
59:41lines and what and that was but however
59:44this process was very much contingent
59:46too often unrelated historical forces
59:49that sometimes have even been forgotten
59:52this is certainly the case with when
59:55interest inspecting many late 19th
59:57century maps from a 21st century
1:00:00perspective the apparent lack of
1:00:02precision and almost haphazard an
1:00:04arbitrary sweep across vaguely defined
1:00:06swaths of land is disconcerting and one
1:00:09can almost again with the benefit of
1:00:12highest safe to say no no no kidding
1:00:15that conflicts arose from how these
1:00:17boundaries were deleted imposed any
1:00:21number of borderland studies helped us
1:00:23explore the larger issues of modernity
1:00:25totalitarian quests through the map
1:00:28William zartmann for instance recognized
1:00:31the border as a social process that is
1:00:33constantly shifting with the ebbs and
1:00:36flows of human life along these border
1:00:38lines in line with the larger state
1:00:40building measures so often highlighted
1:00:42in the literature around these borders
1:00:46the tightening the demands for
1:00:47tightening control over what was deemed
1:00:50to be too porous of boundaries both to
1:00:53raise revenue by taxing cross-border
1:00:55trade and assuring that goods and
1:00:57services did not enter or or exit
1:00:59without formal oversight meant conflict
1:01:02was inevitable on paper these policies
1:01:05correspond well with how political
1:01:07scientists study state centralization
1:01:09projects over the long term events in
1:01:12the Balkans certainly began to take on a
1:01:13more conventional modern border mortar
1:01:16type all of that typology we are signed
1:01:18most likely going to be reporting on
1:01:20this but there is a danger in
1:01:23attributing too much conventional
1:01:25significance to the existence of these
1:01:26borders as markers of one state
1:01:28sovereignty and denial of another states
1:01:31claims to this area
1:01:33as similar mechanisms of harnessing the
1:01:36regional economies were to make inroads
1:01:38throughout the Balkans throughout the
1:01:3920th century only to be condemned and
1:01:42violently suppressed later on labeling
1:01:46in frames of legality and as a
1:01:48consequence in embracing what others are
1:01:51justifying as acts of state infringe our
1:01:55state imposition of order shuts out the
1:01:58possibility of resistance resistance
1:02:01becomes criminal it becomes a part of a
1:02:06lexicon of denying people rights of
1:02:10reacting to these dynamics that clearly
1:02:12that affected their lines with the
1:02:18competing efforts to exploit nature the
1:02:20resulting environmental shifts with
1:02:22droughts to changing migratory patterns
1:02:24of semi wild herds to to the process of
1:02:27avoiding larger human settlements there
1:02:30appears to have been a number of
1:02:32contributions from people directly are
1:02:35so dramatically affected by this process
1:02:37they have been left out of history in
1:02:40this aspect there may be a new way to
1:02:42study the otherwise straightforward
1:02:43struggle to define ways to exploit
1:02:45nature along borderlands the discovered
1:02:48debates around what constitutes the
1:02:50natural versus the human utility of such
1:02:52assets like forests may provide a new
1:02:56appreciation for the depth of historical
1:02:58and environmental history borderland
1:03:01studies state formation and its
1:03:02possibilities to contribute to the study
1:03:04of the late Ottoman Empire and
1:03:05contemporary Balkans as such this
1:03:09lecture sought to the to study conflict
1:03:12over a new range of strategic concerns
1:03:14in far too often neglected neglected
1:03:17comparative pairings as ways as waves of
1:03:22mobile Imperial subjects settle in
1:03:24territories either unknown or later
1:03:25recently marked as new borderland
1:03:28separating once unified lands
1:03:30contestation over what constituted local
1:03:32communal resources and who had a right
1:03:34to profit from them becomes evident in
1:03:38discussions and documents over nature
1:03:41forests in the hinterlands increasingly
1:03:44valued as sources of revenue for cash
1:03:46in Imperial authorities or newly
1:03:48independent states borrowing money from
1:03:51the IMF means that the lands now become
1:03:55take on a new dynamic and those people
1:03:58who are expected to leave these lands in
1:04:00order to avail this state to plunder
1:04:02them or allow corporations to plunder
1:04:04them now of course I'm speaking of that
1:04:06post 1990s Balkans means that these
1:04:10dynamics will remain central to our
1:04:12twentieth first century Balkans as you
1:04:15begin your conference and explore
1:04:17aspects of conflicted claims consider
1:04:19the enduring precarity of order and that
1:04:22contingencies always upset even the most
1:04:25monitored borderland regime in place
1:04:27anything you study in theory anything
1:04:30that's something that's that makes its
1:04:32way up to the Foreign Ministry's level
1:04:33is subject to change the resulting
1:04:42adjustments and opportunities unleash
1:04:44new trajectory is impossible to predict
1:04:46and are only useful retrospectively when
1:04:49much destruction follows unfortunately
1:04:51if our goal is to avoid the consequences
1:04:54of miss reading human possibilities like
1:04:56these we need to learn to read between
1:04:59the lines of our reporter today the
1:05:03story as left behind by 20th century
1:05:05national sister Agra fees are inadequate
1:05:07to understanding the relative level of
1:05:09transition this period represents into
1:05:13scholarship the events seem to refer to
1:05:15wars anti-imperialist battles with
1:05:17expulsion z' and floods of state support
1:05:19the colonization's the extent to which
1:05:22conflict over land and resources are
1:05:24thus framed in projects that likely take
1:05:26different iterations depending on the
1:05:28moment and fail to provide geological
1:05:32support for the final product of a
1:05:34nation-state story is an important
1:05:36theoretical quest for us it is a
1:05:39methodological requirement that we start
1:05:42to investigate in more complicated ways
1:05:44the consequent is on those people who
1:05:47will inevitably be left out of the final
1:05:50story or we call and ago
1:05:52order so thank you very much I filled
1:05:56questions I don't know
1:05:58[Applause]

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