My War Criminal: Personal Encounters with an Architect of Genocide

Boston University global studies professor Stern (coauthor, ISIS: The State of Terror) delivers a fascinating and nuanced portrait of Bosnian Serb leader and convicted war criminal Radovan Karadžić. A former poet and psychiatrist, Karadžić served as president of the Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War; after the war ended in 1996, he spent 12 years disguised as an energy healer before he was arrested and indicted for the mass murder of 8,000 mainly male inhabitants of Srebrenica, among other war crimes. Stern explores Karadžić’s family background and reveals how his politics were driven by fear and resentment of Muslims. She picks apart his rationalizations and obfuscations, yet notes that his claims about the “artificial” nature of the former Yugoslavia and the U.S. government’s “stigmatization” of Serbs have merit. Intriguingly self-reflective, Stern writes that though she couldn’t bring herself to look into Karadžić’s eyes, she found him to be “likable” and “charming” in their one-on-one interviews; she also admits to “harboring a secret, megalomaniacal dream—that I was going to get him to apologize.” (He didn’t.) This eloquent and revelatory book provides essential insight not just into the Balkan wars, but into the mechanisms of genocide and ethnic hatred all over the world. (Jan.)