War and Diplomacy: The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the Treaty of Berlin (Utah Series in Middle East Studies) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1607811502 ISBN 13: 9781607811503

Publisher: University of Utah Press, 2011

Synopsis

Combining different disciplinary perspectives, War and Diplomacy argues that the key events that portended the beginning of the end of the multiethnic Ottoman Empire were the The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of Berlin. The essays in this volume analyze how the war and the treaty permanently transformed the political landscape both in the Balkans and in the Caucasus. The treaty marked the end of Ottoman hegemony in the Balkans by formally recognizing the independence or de facto sovereignty of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro, and the autonomy of Bulgaria. 

By introducing the unitary nation-state as the new organizing concept, the treaty planted the seeds of future conflict, from the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and the First World War to the recent civil wars and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. The magnitude of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by Russia—and eventually by the other great powers—and the human, material, and territorial losses that followed proved fatal to the project of Muslim liberal reform and modernization that the Ottoman state had launched in the middle of the 19th century.
War and Diplomacy offers the first comparative examination of the treaty and its socio-political implications for the Balkans and the Caucasus by utilizing the theoretical tools and approaches of political science, sociology, history, and international relations. Representing the latest scholarship in the field of study, this volume documents the proceedings of a conference on the Treaty of Berlin that was held at the University of Utah in 2010. It provides an important contribution to understanding the historical background of these events. 
 

War and Diplomacy documents the proceedings of the first of three conferences:
1878 Treaty of Berlin (in 2010)
Balkan Wars (in 2011)
World War I (in 2012)
Proceedings of the final two conferences will also be published by the University of Utah Press.

About this title

About the Author:

M. Hakan Yavuz is a professor of political science at the University of Utah. He is the editor of The Emergence of a New Turkey: Democracy and the AK Parti (University of Utah, 2006.)

Peter Sluglett is professor of history at the University of Utah.
 

Review:

“This book makes an important contribution to the study of the 1877–78 Ottoman-Russian War and the Treaty of Berlin. It argues that the war and the treaty mark a new beginning in the Balkans by promoting a nation-state system at the expense of the centuries-old multiethnic imperial system. By taking an interdisciplinary approach to the socio-political consequences of the war and the treaty, the book sheds new light on the origins of contemporary conflicts in the Balkans.”—Kemal Silay, Indiana University, Bloomington

"A well-rounded book. It goes beyond a diplomatic history, which has been the conventional way of approaching the 1878 treaty. For the first time in the field, different faces of the Treaty of Berlin—namely military, diplomatic, constitutional, economic, and social aspects—are analyzed in a comprehensive compilation.”—Ali Yaycioglu, Stanford University

“This book represents a new understanding about the human ‘cost’ of the nation-state buildings in the Balkans. The volume shows the socio-political implications of the collapse of cosmopolitan Ottoman polity in terms of mass population movements, ethnic and religious cleansings, and radicalization of ethnic identities. It provides new insights about the dark side of modernity and challenges the established views on the Treaty of Berlin.”—Dr. Sukru Elekdag, parliamentarian at the Turkish Grand National Assembly and Turkey’s former ambassador to the United States

“This remarkable volume reconsiders the role of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) as the most important treaty of the late Ottoman Empire. The essays in this work—the first comprehensive volume dealing with the beginning of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire—push the boundaries of the historiography on many important and controversial topics such as the Hamidiye Regiments, the Macedonian question, and the Armenian insurgency during the reign of Abdulhamid II. The essays in this volume, well grounded in new archival research and drawing upon different disciplines, provide a fascinating narrative about pan-Islamism, the political origins of the Balkan nation-state system, and many other important topics. This volume is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand many long-neglected aspects to the legacy of the Treaty of Berlin.”—Uli Schamiloglu, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This volume offers good food for thought and provides an interesting and informative examination of both the Eastern Question and the history of the late Ottoman Empire. It is a very useful source for scholars as well as an easily understandable acount for the lay public."—Middle East Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1607811502
• ISBN 13: 9781607811503
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 616
• Editor: Peter Sluglett, M Hakan Yavuz