Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism and the Balkan Wars

For almost twenty years Hockenos has reported extensively on Eastern European life and times, including the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia. He also works for a European think tank focused on the future of the Balkans. Homeland Calling . . . documents the impact of exile activists on their homelands of Croatia, Serbia, and Albania. Tracking how the migrants raised large amounts of money for weapons, political campaigns, and the lobbying of Western governments, Hockenos concludes that exile leaders didn’t cause the wars, but they effectively turbocharged them by supporting radically nationalistic policies.

Paul Hockenos asks how it was possible that some of our next-door neighbors ended up acting as ideologues and the perpetrators of war crimes in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. After decades living in the West, many former migrants failed to promote Western values in their homelands, but turned instead to the most radical political ideologies and ethnic fanaticism. Not only does Homeland Calling tell a fascinating story about the involvement of the migrant community in the wars of former Yugoslavia, it also makes us think hard about our own societies in the West.

Paul Hockenos weaves together a fascinating array of stories about migration, exile, and return. Homeland Calling is an extremely important contribution to understanding the violent collapse of former Yugoslavia. No longer are we in the dark about the role of the Balkan diasporas in those conflicts.

Paul Hockenos’s Homeland Calling is a cautionary tale about what he calls ?long-distance nationalism. With phenomenal reporting and a judicious eye, Hockenos proves that a crude sense of nationalism, nourished in exile, fueled the bloody wars that speckled the Balkans in the 1990s. This is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the Balkan wars, the experience of exile, or the toxin of nationalism.

Paul Hockenos has delved into the murky work of expatriate activism, revealing for the first time a critical factor in the Balkan wars of the1990s and populating a familiar story with colorful new characters. Homeland Calling is a valuable contribution and an enjoyable read.

Homeland Calling uncovers a world that went mostly unreported during the decade-long violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia but whose activities played a crucial and decisive role in the outcome of the wars. This book should be read by anyone interested in the wars for the spoils of Yugoslavia.

There is simply no way to understand how the different wars in the Balkans erupted during the 1990s without knowing the role played by the different exile and diaspora communities. Paul Hockenos has done truly pioneering work in describing this crucial aspect of the Balkans issues. No one has done it before, and no one is likely to do it better in the future.

Although the Balkan wars of the 1990s were homegrown, diasporas from Australia to North America played more than a cameo role. Hockenos is the first person with enough curiosity and drive to unravel systematically the connections between the Croat, Serb, and Albanian emigre populations and Franjo Tudjman, Slobodan Milosevic, and others who presided over the Balkan calamity.