Dr Josip Glaurdic

Junior Research Fellow studying Political Sciences

t: (01223) 333260

e: jg527@cam.ac.uk

Main Publications:

Most recent publication:

Inside the Serbian War Machine: The Milosevic Telephone Intercepts, 1991-1992, East European Politics and Societies, 23 (1), 86-104 (2009)

What is your subject and specific area of study?

My interests were quite different when I began graduate studies some time ago at Yale. I started out as an institutionalist interested in one aspect of politics that is probably the easiest to fit into formal models: elections and electoral systems. I was fascinated with the question of whether institutional choices made at some point in time could have distant future effects on things like the quality of government or of social and political life. What I, however, found during the long hours that I spent in the dark stacks of Yale’s Sterling Library was that I was increasingly drawn to a rather different literature. All of us coming from the Balkans have somehow been branded with history. Some time in the second year of graduate school I finally stopped resisting my urge to read more about the history of the Balkans and of its place in the European and international political system. My dissertation research thus concentrated on the period of the end of the Cold War and the last several years of Yugoslavia’s existence. I tried to fit the dynamics of the disintegration of the South Slav federation into the larger historical context of the period and, even more so, to understand the roots of Western policy towards the violent events which engulfed Yugoslavia’s successor states in an actually quite gradual, methodical, and premeditated fashion. During my term as a Junior Research Fellow at Clare, I plan to shed light on the aftermath of those events and to offer the story and the explanation of the ways in which the people and the societies of the region have begun to reconstruct the ties between them, and of the impact the European Union has had on that process.

What makes Clare College such a good place to study your subject?

The great thing about Clare and Cambridge is that there is a high level of interaction between people of varied interests and skills. There is at the same time a strong sense of intellectual and social community, as well as a commitment to building well-rounded individuals – both students and faculty members. Social sciences are intrinsically inter-disciplinary and those who approach them from different perspectives usually give us the best insight into the nature of human social and political behaviour. That is the kind of work that is valued and encouraged here. Moreover, Clare and Cambridge allow you at the same time to expose yourself to a never-ending string of stimulating events, and to get immersed into that blissful solitude of archival research and writing. The people and the setting are inspiring no matter what you choose to do.