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A special issue (5.1) of spacesofidentity on War Criminality is now online. This issue takes us on a journey from WWII Ukraine across the bloodied landscapes of the former Yugoslavia and of Chechnya. It is also a journey through time: from the camps in which victims' last breaths slipped away at the point of a soldier's bayonet to the eerie silence of a hi-tech war-room in a desert.
John-Paul Himka's topic is the unwillingness of the Ukrainian diaspora to acknowledge crimes committed during WWII: War Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora.

James Sadkovich's contribution also tackles a sensitive theme: the politically motivated misrepresentation of the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sadkovich successfully and forcefully dismantles the myth of Bosnia always being a multicultural paradise, thus countering the claims of modern-day transitilogists and 'grantoid' organizations in the region. His article, Reconsidering Bosnia-Herzegovina, also sheds new light on the manner in which the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia can be analyzed.

Srdja Pavlovic’s contribution - Reckoning: The 1991 Siege of Dubrovnik and the Consequences of the ‘War for Peace’ - also addresses the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. More specifically, it analyzes the 1991 siege of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik and raises the question of personalization of responsibility for crimes committed as the necessary point of departure in the process of reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia.

W. Andy Knight & Tanya Narozhna present a powerful account and analysis of war-torn Chechnya and the ruthless way this war has been waged by the Russian government. By highlighting issues of extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances, murder, rape and torture, their article, Rape and Other War Crimes in Chechnya. Is There a Role for the International Criminal Court?, emphasizes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and other horrendous violations of international humanitarian law.

Finally, Lise Hogan and William Anselmi reflect more philosophically on war. Their series of interventions address war as part of our common imaginary and the way language and image help dehumanize and sanitize it for the general public: Reflections on War
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