SOURCE: Borden, Anthony. “‘We are the War.’” Nation 256, no. 19 (17 May 1993): 672-74.

In the following review, Borden asserts that Drakulic's focus on the individual in The Balkan Express is important to understanding the war in that region.

A month into the shelling of Sarajevo, I interviewed a law professor at the university there. In retrospect it was a relatively hopeful period, before the worst atrocities occurred and the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided. It seemed terribly urgent then to talk about measures the international community could undertake, and the professor had several important proposals. Speaking by telephone from a safe place beneath a staircase, however, he emphasized how inappropriate and even hypocritical it was to discuss “high politics” at such a time.

The remark confused me. If “high politics” meant what the world could do to halt the nightmare, I had to disagree, and I dutifully plodded...