What do you think?
Rate this book
The Politics of Exile
"The most thought-provoking and refreshing work on Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia in a long time.It is certainly an immense contribution to the broadening schools within international relations." Times Higher Education ( THE ). Written in both autoethnographical and narrative form, The Politics of Exile offers unique insight into the complex encounter of researcher with research subject in the context of the Bosnian War and its aftermath. Exploring themes of personal and civilizational guilt, of displaced and fractured identity, of secrets and subterfuge, of love and alienation, of moral choice and the impossibility of ethics, this work challenges us to recognise pure narrative as an accepted form of writing in international relations. The author brings theory to life and gives corporeal reality to a wide range of concepts in international relations, including an exploration of the ways in which young academics are initiated into a culture where the volume of research production is more valuable than its content, and where success is marked not by intellectual innovation, but by conformity to theoretical expectations in research and teaching. This engaging work will be essential reading for all students and scholars of international relations and global politics.
224 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 26, 2019
Thank you Professor Jones, for this book and for everything else. You are missed.
May 6, 2023
It’s funny how this book is treated like a radical critique of the academic scholarship on the war in Bosnia. All it does is to reproduce the general pro-imperialist conceptions of the war while adding some banal academic spice such as “can we easily label people as war criminals as they had different and much complex motivations to commit the war crimes”?
So no worries: Safely add the book to your IR or political science syllabus and rest assured that your students will only be mildly shocked but not so much to turn into some anti-imperialist radical to refuse to get a job in a think-tank after graduating.
Because, there are many new Bosnias on the making right now and the machine needs new Scholar-GPTs to comment on them without touching the delicate issue of capitalist imperialism.
So no worries: Safely add the book to your IR or political science syllabus and rest assured that your students will only be mildly shocked but not so much to turn into some anti-imperialist radical to refuse to get a job in a think-tank after graduating.
Because, there are many new Bosnias on the making right now and the machine needs new Scholar-GPTs to comment on them without touching the delicate issue of capitalist imperialism.
July 28, 2023
I read this book in the context of my dialogue in the Balkan region where I have already learned about the Bosnian War (1992-95). This book was great and gave me a whole other point of view that I don’t feel I received from my studies here thus far. It set into perspective that there was no good or bad in the war, and that people and countries should not be judged as such. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in the region, but I would recommend having dome basic knowledge of what took place both for clarification and because I liked that this tore down all of what I thought I knew and felt about the war. This was also written in a very cool way because it is a true story but written as a novel. Easy to read, emotional, and a great way to learn. I RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE.
December 27, 2021
Hauntingly good. Basically stories about the Bosnian War within a story about a professor who writes about the war and her interlocutor. Reflects on what it means to research war after the fact, as an outsider, and use that research to construct larger theories of international politics that rarely serve the people upon whose experiences they are based. Even worse is when those theories abstract the core truths and emotions of what people have shared. Published in an academic series but written is narrative form so it reads like a novel (or narrative nonfiction). As such there’s a bit of mystery as to what is true (about Dauphinee, the author, and the real Stojan) and what has been embellished, but you don’t need to know any of that to make meaning of the text.
“‘How would you know if you were a war criminal?… Well, is everyone who is responsible for another man’s death a war criminal?’
— ‘Of course not. There are international agreements determining what constitutes a war crime.’
— ‘But not everyone agrees on the criteria… And not everyone knows them…There are some situations where no matter what you choose, you will be responsible for something that you couldn’t anticipate.’”
“‘And nobody really knows why each person made his choice. You can’t tell me with your theories and none of your colleagues can tell me, either. I read many books on war…And when I read them, I felt like I was reading something that took place on Mars. I couldn’t recognize the things I was reading, because, for me, it was not as they described it. It was not as they explained it.’”
“‘How would you know if you were a war criminal?… Well, is everyone who is responsible for another man’s death a war criminal?’
— ‘Of course not. There are international agreements determining what constitutes a war crime.’
— ‘But not everyone agrees on the criteria… And not everyone knows them…There are some situations where no matter what you choose, you will be responsible for something that you couldn’t anticipate.’”
“‘And nobody really knows why each person made his choice. You can’t tell me with your theories and none of your colleagues can tell me, either. I read many books on war…And when I read them, I felt like I was reading something that took place on Mars. I couldn’t recognize the things I was reading, because, for me, it was not as they described it. It was not as they explained it.’”
November 4, 2017
This is the book that would hunt me for long...reads like a beautifully narrated novel but it's not a fiction and maybe that's the reason why it will hunt my thoughts more. I don't know how to review this book so I have shared three reviews/statements that have said closer to what I felt while reading this extraordinary book on Bosnia War and its aftermath:
i. "An extraordinary work that I found hard to put down each night, and whose emotions, echoes and affects disturbed my sleep and days…a very fine and powerful work of art that glows dangerously in the hands." - (Anthony Burke, Associate Professor, International and Political Studies, UNSW Canberra, Australia)
ii. "Elizabeth Dauphinee's moving book is so engaging because it is so self-aware, so achingly candid. Here is the book to read if you want to get even a glimpse of the impossible choices that one has to make when one becomes one of the world's "displaced." This book will stick to your ribs." - (Cynthia Enloe, Author of Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War)
iii. "This very thought provoking book challenges the notion that the injustice of war violence and misery of others can be grasped by a detached, rational scholar." - (Maja Korac, School of Law and Social Sciences, University of East London)
I would recommend any fiction reader and non-fiction readers, scholars of academia to read this book.
i. "An extraordinary work that I found hard to put down each night, and whose emotions, echoes and affects disturbed my sleep and days…a very fine and powerful work of art that glows dangerously in the hands." - (Anthony Burke, Associate Professor, International and Political Studies, UNSW Canberra, Australia)
ii. "Elizabeth Dauphinee's moving book is so engaging because it is so self-aware, so achingly candid. Here is the book to read if you want to get even a glimpse of the impossible choices that one has to make when one becomes one of the world's "displaced." This book will stick to your ribs." - (Cynthia Enloe, Author of Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War)
iii. "This very thought provoking book challenges the notion that the injustice of war violence and misery of others can be grasped by a detached, rational scholar." - (Maja Korac, School of Law and Social Sciences, University of East London)
I would recommend any fiction reader and non-fiction readers, scholars of academia to read this book.
November 26, 2023
Wow. This is the most humanising book on politics and war that I have read by a Political Scientist so far!
June 6, 2017
If you only ever read one more book in your life, LET IT BE THIS BOOK
February 27, 2022
this is one of the most enlightening reading experiences i have ever had. i cherish this novel. everyone should read it
November 22, 2024
jesusssssssssssssss
June 14, 2018
Far more entertaining then I was expecting for a book about the Bosnian war. Not that the breakup of Yugoslavia isn't interesting, but I came in expecting an academic text and maybe some refugee interviews, instead I got something far more personal. What makes Elizabeth Dauphinee's experience with Stojan Sokolović so interesting is that it comes from an academic. A war memoir on the subject could probably hold my interest, but in a way this feels like a peek behind the curtain at the lives of those professors who write scholarly papers on distant conflicts. I've read a number of these, and its really interesting to get a look at the minds of these people who seem so familiar, yet are so unknown to me. Like all people they're far less in control of their lives then it might appear.
Dauphinee can certainly write, and Sokolović's story on the front lines of a genocidal conflict is worth telling. Honestly I felt like the book could have used some more meat, but the conclusion of Stojan's story moved me more then I expected. Its not really my type of book for reasons that are difficult to pin down, but I definitely see why people like this one. In a way I suppose I'm impressed by what the book does more then I enjoyed it.
Dauphinee can certainly write, and Sokolović's story on the front lines of a genocidal conflict is worth telling. Honestly I felt like the book could have used some more meat, but the conclusion of Stojan's story moved me more then I expected. Its not really my type of book for reasons that are difficult to pin down, but I definitely see why people like this one. In a way I suppose I'm impressed by what the book does more then I enjoyed it.
June 15, 2026
Started this book in a world politics class, finished it after my time in the Balkans. Beautiful and life-changing. “Countries are stone and wood. And they’re not worth it.”
“‘You talk about ethics,’ he went on. ‘You act like it can be calculated. “The ethical moment of decision,” you call it. But sometimes we just have to choose—like Petar Petrović chose when he unloaded his rifle. We don’t, or can’t, see all the consequences, and we just choose. And the thing we think is the right thing turns out to be the worst choice imaginable. And the thing we think is the wrong thing—well, sometimes it stays the wrong thing, and sometimes it’s even worse than that. And then we have to live with it.’”
“‘You talk about ethics,’ he went on. ‘You act like it can be calculated. “The ethical moment of decision,” you call it. But sometimes we just have to choose—like Petar Petrović chose when he unloaded his rifle. We don’t, or can’t, see all the consequences, and we just choose. And the thing we think is the right thing turns out to be the worst choice imaginable. And the thing we think is the wrong thing—well, sometimes it stays the wrong thing, and sometimes it’s even worse than that. And then we have to live with it.’”
February 5, 2023
"I couldn't answer him, so, true to my arrogance as I always was, I promptly forgot about him. He compromised my position. He compromised my politics. He had to be forgotten for me to remain who I was."
Somewhere between a novel, an autoethnography and a book on research ethics/philosophy of war. It does everything it sets out to do in each of these categories, all while staying completely accessible to any audience (although the title initially put me off, which says more about me). I wish it was published as a novel because the story is so well plotted and the characters so captivating - unfortunately it looks like the e-book alone is over £30.
Somewhere between a novel, an autoethnography and a book on research ethics/philosophy of war. It does everything it sets out to do in each of these categories, all while staying completely accessible to any audience (although the title initially put me off, which says more about me). I wish it was published as a novel because the story is so well plotted and the characters so captivating - unfortunately it looks like the e-book alone is over £30.
August 7, 2017
Highly recommended! A life story in a narrated way! A book is about Yugoslavia war. Completely different perspective and a great book about the shadow side of this war. It is always a necessity to be able to look to the events from both parties. Events from a Serbian soldier Stojan Sokolovich's eyes. But it does not change my mind that Serbs committed lots of atrocities towards Bosnians, especially in Srebrenica.
March 4, 2024
A poignant intervention that lays bare a troubling yet underexplored ethical contraposition, that is, the coziness of International Relations academia versus the punishing inhumanity of war. While it speaks directly to a privileged few, all can benefit from Dauphinee's deft treatment of universal struggles: a loss of identity, the death of a loved one, a betrayal of trust, and knowing too much.
July 2, 2017
Such an unfair book! So unfair, it blocks your exits!
March 4, 2021
Profound. Nice circular flow - definitely something academics would consider "profound".
August 15, 2021
A marvelous account of what narrative auto ethnography can offer sholarship in world politics/ethics and other disciplines
March 9, 2025
why is the cover Katy Perry lol
October 15, 2025
I quite literally just finished this book and I have no clue how to even begin to think about how this book made me feel. And it was an assigned reading for class too so I thought I would hate it.
July 24, 2023
Excellent account of real people - one who has experienced war and one who is attempting to write about it.
review on karenmartinreads.blogspot.com
review on karenmartinreads.blogspot.com
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews