DU Interview: War, Memory, and Emotions. From the Balkans to Ukraine
Three decades after the Balkan wars, Europe is witnessing a devastating armed conflict in Ukraine. Drawing on his recent academic visit to Lviv, Ukraine, the social anthropologist Prof. Dr. Ger Duijzings (University of Regensburg, seeFField) shares his observations on the war documentation and memory, the role of emotions, and the work of researchers investigating atrocities in Ukraine.
As you follow the war in Ukraine, do you ever find yourself reminded of the Balkan wars? What similarities or differences stand out to you personally when you look at these two conflicts?
When the full-scale war started 2022, I was involuntarily thrown back to the early 1990s, when Serbia started to conquer and ethnically cleanse territories in the neighbouring republics Croatia and Bosnia. I saw almost immediately the parallels: a nation which is aspiring to be hegemonic tries to claim as much territory as possible, at the cost of all the others, regardless of the costs of human lives. A key difference is that, in the case of Russia, this has been very much a postponed or delayed response to the collapse of a former multinational socialist state.
The way wars are documented has changed dramatically. During the Balkan wars, television was very influential. Now, smartphones, satellites, and social media play a significant role in documenting Russian war against Ukraine. What is your impression of this shift? Do you see it as more of an opportunity or a challenge for the fair documentation of war events?
I do see it somehow as an advantage, but of course I am also aware of the various risks and pitfalls that this digital media environment presents. I believe that with the availability of social media and the various online media sources, the Russian war against Ukraine can be followed much more closely as it was the case in the former Yugoslavia. Social media have also led to a “democratisation” of war reporting, even of everyday life in a country at war: we can see and observe more directly the human and on-the-ground repercussions, both in terms of suffering and resistance.
Do you think that Ukrainians, who are living through an ongoing war and are naturally focused on their own experience, are able to draw lessons from the Balkan wars at this moment?
While I was taking part in a panel discussion in Lviv at the beginning of June 2026, some Ukrainian colleagues were emphasizing the benefits of making this kind of historical comparison, but most people are basically in survival mode -- I fully understand this and I can’t blame them. This is not the time to sit back and compare your own experiences with those of a previous conflict in another part of Europe. This may only come later, after the war is over. I am always prepared to contribute to such a discussion.
You are currently exploring the role of emotions in conflicts. Looking back at the Balkan wars, what have you learned about how emotions shape the way people talk about war over time?
In my research, I look particularly at what I call “dark emotions”, like resentment, hatred, envy. They are important ingredients of how wars are fought or justified. We usually limit ourselves to cognitive aspects like ideology, but I argue that perpetrators are driven by strong emotions that are collectively fashioned and framed.
You have recently attended a symposium in Ukraine. What surprised or impressed you the most? Did anything about the work of Ukrainian researchers and investigators on the ground particularly stand out to you?
I was impressed by people’s resilience and adaptability. Life goes on, and work goes on, and there is hope and vitality despite everything. The war does leave its manifold traces, even in a city like Lviv which is far removed from the frontlines. I was also pleasantly surprised by the very open debating culture at the event in which I participated. People expressed different viewpoints and were able to listen to each other.
Have you noticed whether a culture of remembrance around the war is already emerging in Ukraine? If so, what has impressed you most about it?
Since I do not speak Ukrainian, I was looking for material forms of remembrance, so the kinds of commemoration that are not “verbal” or “spoken”. My visit to the Field of Mars, on a Sunday afternoon, left an indelible impression, as I saw families visiting the graves of their loved ones. The graves were very much personalised, all of them were singular and unique monuments for a family member. There were numerous flags and benches next to the graves that were shared across the cemetery, but for the rest, the personalised items such as flowers and photos of the deceased, and other small items such as children’s toys and favourite sweets were extremely touching. I wish this individualised quality of these monuments could be kept, but of course plans are in the way to standardize the military cemetery, as it is often the case with such cemeteries.
Ger Duijzings
Ger Duijzings is Professor of Social Anthropology with special focus on Southeastern and Eastern Europe at the University of Regensburg. He has extensive fieldwork experience in Kosovo (1986-1992), Bosnia (1997-2002) and Romania (since 2009). He did research on the wars in the former Yugoslavia, as well as urban transformations in post-socialist cities. For his list of publications see: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3711-4530.