Charles Ingrao

Last updated

Charles W. Ingrao (born 1948) is an historian and public intellectual focused on early modern Central Europe and the contemporary Balkans. Born and raised in New York City, he attended Richmond Hill High School. He received his BA from Wesleyan in 1969 and his PhD from Brown in 1974, studying under Norman Rich and William F. Church. [1] [2] He is a professor of history at Purdue University and has held visiting positions around the world. [3] In 2001, he founded and still directs “The Scholars' Initiative." [4] This project seeks to use the work of scholars to undermine nationalist interpretations of the recent past that have made peace in the Balkans difficult. As of 2011, the project had brought together over 300 scholars from 30 nations, including all of the states of the former Yugoslavia. [5]

Contents

Background

Ingrao was born on March 15, 1948. He is an authority of the early modern period in Germany and Central Europe, publishing numerous books and scholarly articles on various political, economic, and cultural topics. He has served as editor of the Austrian History Yearbook (1997-2006) is Founding Editor of Purdue University Press's “Central European Studies” series (1997 to the present). [6] In October 1991, he founded HABSBURG, "the first Internet discussion group dedicated to an historical theme." [7] He has been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including three Fulbright awards, NEH grants, and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. [8] In 2015, he was awarded the “Discovery Excellence Award for the Humanities” from Purdue University. [9] [10]

Although Ingrao initially published on the early modern history of the Habsburg monarchy and the Holy Roman Empire, he refocused his scholarship to ethnic coexistence and conflict during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s. Shortly after the Srebrenica massacre, he made the first of over fifty trips to the Balkan war zones to heighten public awareness of the contrast between region's history of ethnic coexistence and the humanitarian catastrophe wrought by ethnic nationalism. [11] In 1996, he uncovered evidence of the Clinton administration's duplicity in shielding war criminals from arrest that was reported by NPR and the New York Times. [12] This brought him into the public debate and intra-governmental struggle over US policy. By the late 1990s, he was a regular interview subject for print, radio and television news stories in Europe and North America, as well as a recurring guest on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. [13] [14] [15] His focus on the interplay of history and contemporary policymaking led to a series of nationally and internationally syndicated columns and guest lectures across North America, Europe and China before academic, governmental and military audiences, including the US State Department, several US Embassies abroad, the US Capitol, the British House of Commons, S.H.A.P.E. headquarters, and the National Defense University. [16] [17] [18]

The Scholars' Initiative

He also helped develop “The Scholars' Initiative: Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies,” which brought both regional and international scholars together to examine the origins and course of the conflict in order to dispel myths and half-truths that disrupt dialogue and reconciliation. Over the next eight years eleven multinational research teams published four volumes. With the appearance of Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies in 2009, the project presented the first common narrative of the conflict intended to serve as the basis for mutual understanding and political moderation. The group's efforts have garnered considerable media attention both in the region and abroad, including strident criticism from the nationalist circles in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, as well as from former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke after exposing the Clinton Administration's role in shielding Serbian wartime leader Radovan Karadžić from arrest. [19] [20] [21] [22]

Books

In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1979). Expanded German edition: Josef I. Der “vergessene” Kaiser (Vienna, Graz and Cologne: Styria Verlag, 1982).

The Hessian Mercenary State: Ideas, Institutions, and Reform under Frederick II, 1760-1785 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).

ed., State & Society in Early Modern Austria (W. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1994).

The Habsburg Monarchy 1618-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; 2nd edition, 2000; 3rd edition, 2019). Expanded Serbian edition: Habzburška monarhija 1618-1815 (Belgrade: Republika, 2014).

with Lazar Vrkatić, Nenaučena Lekcija: srednjoeuropska ideja I srpski nacionalni program (Untaught Lessons: the Central European Idea and the Serbian National Program) (Belgrade: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, 2001).

with Thomas Emmert, "Resolving the Yugoslav Controversies: a Scholars’ Initiative," [Nationalities Papers, 32/4 (2004)]. Republished as Conflict in Southeastern Europe at the End of the Twentieth Century: a Scholars’ Initiative (New York & London: Routledge, 2006).

ed. with Franz Szabo, The Germans and the East (W. Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2007).

with Thomas Emmert, Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: a Scholars’ Initiative (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press and U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2009, revised/expanded 2nd ed. 2012). Revised BCS edition: Suočavanje s jugoslovenskim kontroverzama (Sarajevo: Buy Book, 2010.). Updated and expanded Montenegrin edition (Podgorica: University of Podgorica Press, 2015).

with Nikola Samardžić and Jovan Pešalj, The Peace of Passarowitz, 1718 (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011).

Selected articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Serbia</span> Serbian nationalist concept for a Serb state

The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia describes the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology of the creation of a Serb state which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group, including regions outside modern-day Serbia that are partly populated by Serbs. The initial movement's main ideology (Pan-Serbism) was to unite all Serbs into one state, claiming, depending on the version, different areas of many surrounding countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yugoslav Wars</span> 1991–2001 series of wars in the Balkans

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six entities known as republics which previously composed Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Yugoslavia's constituent republics declared independence due to unresolved tensions between ethnic minorities in the new countries, which fuelled the wars. While most of the conflicts ended through peace accords that involved full international recognition of new states, they resulted in a massive number of deaths as well as severe economic damage to the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosnian War</span> 1992–1995 armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December 1995 when the Dayton accords were signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of Herzeg-Bosnia and Republika Srpska, proto-states led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srđa Trifković</span> Serbian-American writer

Srđa Trifković is a Serbian-American publicist, politician and historian. He is currently a foreign affairs editor for the paleoconservative magazine Chronicles, and a politics professor at the University of Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Croatia</span> Croatian nationalist ideology

Greater Croatia is a term applied to certain currents within Croatian nationalism. In one sense, it refers to the territorial scope of the Croatian people, emphasising the ethnicity of those Croats living outside Croatia. In the political sense, though, the term refers to an irredentist belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of the Croatian state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakup of Yugoslavia</span> 1991–92 Balkan political conflict

The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused bitter inter-ethnic Yugoslav wars. The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighbouring parts of Croatia and, some years later, Kosovo.

The History of the Serbs spans from the Early Middle Ages to present. Serbs, a South Slavic people, traditionally live mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and North Macedonia. A Serbian diaspora dispersed people of Serb descent to Western Europe, North America and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia</span> Unrecognized proto-state in the Balkans (1991–1996); now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia as a "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole" in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and abolished on 14 August 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filip Višnjić</span>

Filip Višnjić was a Serbian epic poet and guslar. His repertoire included 13 original epic poems chronicling the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire and four reinterpreted epics from different periods of history of Serbia.

The Graz agreement was a proposed agreement made between the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić and the Bosnian Croat leader Mate Boban on 6 May 1992 in the city of Graz, Austria. The agreement publicly declared the territorial division between Republika Srpska and the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and called for an end of conflicts between Serbs and Croats. The largest group in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosniaks, did not take part in the agreement and were purposefully not invited to the negotiations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Srebrenica</span> 1992 - 1995 siege during the Bosnian War

The siege of Srebrenica was a three-year siege of the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina which lasted from April 1992 to July 1995 during the Bosnian War. Initially assaulted by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Serbian Volunteer Guard (SDG), the town was encircled by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in May 1992, starting a brutal siege which was to last for the majority of the Bosnian War. In June 1995, the commander of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) in the enclave, Naser Orić, left Srebrenica and fled to the town of Tuzla. He was subsequently replaced by his deputy, Major Ramiz Bećirović.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Security Council Resolution 942</span> United Nations resolution adopted in 1994

United Nations Security Council resolution 942, adopted on 23 September 1994, after reaffirming all resolutions on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Council reinforced measures relating to safe areas under control of Bosnian Serb forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yugoslavism</span> South Slavic unification ideology

Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes, but also Bulgarians, belong to a single Yugoslav nation separated by diverging historical circumstances, forms of speech, and religious divides. During the interwar period, Yugoslavism became predominant in, and then the official ideology of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism, centralisation, and unification of the country's ethnic groups into a single Yugoslav nation, by coercion if necessary. The approach was also applied to languages spoken in the Kingdom. The main alternative was federalist Yugoslavism which advocated the autonomy of the historical lands in the form of a federation and gradual unification without outside pressure. Both agreed on the concept of National Oneness developed as an expression of the strategic alliance of South Slavs in Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century. The concept was meant as a notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had shared language. It was considered neutral regarding the choice of centralism or federalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bijeljina massacre</span> Killing of civilians by Serb paramilitary groups in Bijeljina during Bosnian Civil War

The Bijeljina massacre involved the killing of civilians by Serb paramilitary groups in Bijeljina on 1–2 April 1992 in the run-up to the Bosnian War. The majority of those killed were Bosniaks. Members of other ethnicities were also killed, such as Serbs deemed disloyal by the local authorities. The killing was committed by a local paramilitary group known as Mirko's Chetniks and by the Serb Volunteer Guard, a Serbia-based paramilitary group led by Željko Ražnatović. The SDG were under the command of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which was controlled by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War</span> Deportations and persecutions that occurred during the Yugoslav Wars

Ethnic cleansing occurred during the Bosnian War (1992–95) as large numbers of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian Croats were forced to flee their homes or were expelled by the Army of Republika Srpska and Serb paramilitaries. Bosniaks and Bosnian Serbs had also been forced to flee or were expelled by Bosnian Croat forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers. The UN Security Council Final Report (1994) states while Bosniaks also engaged in "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other violations of international humanitarian law", they "have not engaged in "systematic ethnic cleansing"". According to the report, "there is no factual basis for arguing that there is a 'moral equivalence' between the warring factions".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">July 18, 1998 Albanian–Yugoslav border clashes</span> 1998 Albanian–Yugoslav border clashes

On July 18, 1998 a Yugoslav Army (VJ) border patrol ambushed a column of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) insurgents and foreign mujahideen just west of Dečani, on the frontier between Albania and Yugoslavia. The ambush resulted in the deaths of four KLA fighters and 18 mujahideen, most of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. Twelve militants were wounded, and a further six were arrested by the Yugoslav authorities and charged with illegal entry and gunrunning. The VJ reported seizing a significant amount of arms and ammunition that the militants had been smuggling. One Yugoslav border guard was seriously wounded in the clash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serbian historiography</span> Methodology in Serbian history studies

Serbian historiography refers to the historiography of the Serb people since the founding of Serbian statehood. The development can be divided into four main stages: traditional historiography, Ruvarac's critical school, Communist–Marxist legacy, and the renewed Serbian national movement.

In June 1991, representatives of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs met to discuss the future status of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav crisis.

Around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, 1 March 1992, a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Sarajevo's old Muslim quarter of Baščaršija was attacked, resulting in the death of the father of the groom, Nikola Gardović, and the wounding of a Serbian Orthodox priest. The attack took place on the last day of a controversial referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence from Yugoslavia, in the early stages of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars.

Silos was a concentration camp operated by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) during the Bosnian War. Centered around a windowless grain silo, it was used to detain Bosnian Serb, and to a lesser extent Bosnian Croat, civilians between 1992 and 1996. The camp was located in the village of Tarčin, near the town of Hadžići, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Sarajevo. Inmates were subjected to beatings, given little food and kept in unsanitary conditions. Five-hundred Bosnian Serb and ninety Bosnian Croat civilians were detained at the camp; twenty-four prisoners lost their lives.

References

  1. "Center Austria". Archived from the original on 2016-04-02.
  2. "Central Europe Review - Masthead: Details". www.ce-review.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  3. See his curriculum vitae at: https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/cv/charles-ingrao.pdf
  4. "The Scholars". www.cla.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  5. "Bosnian Institute News: 'Pentagon behind Karadzic immunity deal' - Charles Ingrao". www.bosnia.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  6. "Central European Studies | Purdue University Press". www.thepress.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  7. "About HABSBURG | Habsburg | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  8. "Charles Ingrao | Fulbright Scholar Program". www.cies.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  9. "Purdue's College of Liberal Arts" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-10.
  10. "Purdue University" (PDF).
  11. Deak, Istvan (1999-06-01). "A somewhat pessimistic view of Charles Ingrao's "understanding ethnic conflict in Central Europe"". Nationalities Papers. 27 (2): 319–322. doi:10.1080/009059999109082. ISSN   0090-5992. S2CID   145092544.
  12. Lewis, Anthony (1996-10-28). "Winking At Karadzic". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  13. "Milosevic Arrest | PBS NewsHour". PBS NewsHour. 2 April 2001. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  14. (PDF) https://www.cla.purdue.edu/history/documents/Publications/Ingrao_News_Hour_Interviews.pdf.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. "Historian Backs Karadzic's Immunity Claim". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  16. INGRAO, CHARLES (1999-04-12). "It Will Take More Than Bombs to Bring Stability". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  17. "Hungarian American Coalition ::: Vojvodina/Vajdaság ::: Background Information on Panelists". Hungarian American Coalition. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  18. Greenblatt, Alan (5 March 2010). "The Tricky Business Of Defining Genocide". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  19. "Rebuilding Balkan Bridges". The Chronicle of Higher Education. 2006-02-10. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  20. "The Scholars". www.cla.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  21. Simons, Marlise (2009-03-25). "Envoy Denies Immunity Offer to Leader of Bosnian Serbs". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  22. Simons, Marlise (2009-03-22). "Study Backs Bosnian Serb's Claim of Immunity". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-01-31.