Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Eastern European Studies
Guest: Maja Davidović
Book: Governing the Past: "Never Again" and the Transitional Justice Project (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Host: Dragana Pravulovic
Date: December 5, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful interview with Maja Davidović, a scholar of international relations, discussing her new book, Governing the Past: "Never Again" and the Transitional Justice Project. Centered on post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, the conversation explores the global imperatives of ensuring a peaceful future and dealing with the past through the lens of transitional justice. Davidović critically examines the promises and pitfalls of transitional justice mechanisms and how global interventions intersect with local lived experiences and anxieties about potential conflict recurrence.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Post-Conflict Bosnia: A Laboratory for Transitional Justice

[02:05–11:07]

• Context: The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement not only ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also created an enduring international presence in domestic affairs, notably the Office of the High Commissioner, whose powers have expanded.
• International Experimentation: Bosnia has been a "laboratory" for international approaches to transitional justice, criminal accountability, and state-building. The ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) was pioneering in trying leaders, such as Slobodan Milošević, and set precedents in international criminal law.
• Personal Connection: Davidović’s own upbringing in the former Yugoslavia, combined with an academic path through human rights and genocide studies, informs both her passion and critical stance. "I feel like I have lived transitional justice all of my life or most of my life." [06:49]

2. Two Global Imperatives: "Never Again" as Vow and Policy

[11:07–20:17]

• Imperative One: Ensuring a Peaceful Future ("Never Again")
  The phrase has become a near-universal political vow post-World War II, particularly in the wake of the Holocaust.

  "Since the end of World War II, this vow of never again has been made repeatedly." [12:05]

• Imperative Two: Dealing with the Past
  Post-conflict societies are compelled—or pressured—externally and internally, to implement transitional justice measures: criminal trials, truth commissions, institutional reforms, and reparations.
• Causal Linkage: The global doctrine is that proper reckoning with the past will secure a peaceful future. Davidović argues, however, that this "consensus" often glosses over empirical ambiguities and contested lived experiences.

3. Central Argument: Transitional Justice and Anxiety

[19:13–21:31]

• Challenging the Benevolence of Transitional Justice: Rather than treating transitional justice as intrinsically good, Davidović interrogates how its structures and demands can fuel, not heal, local anxieties about potential conflict recurrence.

  "The global project of transitional justice can in fact exacerbate people's anxieties about renewed conflict in different political communities." [19:13]

• Focus on Perceptions: The author makes clear she is not predicting conflict, but is interested in how these interventions shape perceptions and insecurities on the ground.

4. Ontological Insecurity: Uncertainty in the Wake of Justice

[21:31–29:46]

• Defining Ontological (In)Security: The concept refers to a stable sense of self—individual or collective—versus anxiety when that is threatened. Transitional justice projects, while promising closure, can disrupt communal narratives and identities.

  "The project is there first and foremost to manage some of these uncertainties that characterize transitions as times of significant changes." [24:50]

• Double-Edged Interventions: While transitional justice institutions might create new routines or authoritative knowledge, they can also destabilize national/collective narratives and trigger contestations over identity, memory, and history.

  "It can bring new and aggravated uncertainties with its practices." [28:03]

5. The ICTY and the Multiplication of Truths

[29:46–38:48]

• Absence of National Truth Commission: Despite myriad interventions, Bosnia never had a unified national body to investigate and record the causes and consequences of the war. Instead, multiple competing "truths" proliferate.

  "There is no agreement on even the character of the war." [30:45]

• Judicial "Truth" as Disruptive: ICTY’s legal findings, positioned as authoritative and "objective," often clashed with—and even entrenched—revisionist or rival narratives among Serb, Croat, and Bosniak communities.

  "Instead of creating a common political narrative, the global project's emphasis on judicial truths... further [fuels the] creation of not only multiple but also irreconcilable versions of reality." [38:48]

6. Hope, Agency, and the "Homework" of Non-Recurrence

[41:24–47:53]

• Homework as Hope: Davidović frames the final chapter not as prescriptive policy, but as an invitation to personal and collective action.

  "Non recurrence is constructed as the form of work rather than some actionable goal that has, you know, expiration date—it's open ended, it's fluid... it depends on all of us. It's our mess." [44:18–47:00]

• Civil Society's Role: Grassroots initiatives—like creating trans-ethnic spaces and fostering empathy—sometimes work regardless of, or even in resistance to, international transitional justice frameworks.
• Reclaiming Ownership: Interventions may have undermined Bosnians’ own sense of agency and authorship of their history, present and future, but waves of civic action, such as recent protests in Serbia, hint at the possibility of regaining that ownership.

7. Research Methodology and Fieldwork Reflections

[47:53–53:05]

• Research Approach: Davidović conducted extensive fieldwork, including practitioner interviews, media analysis, and archival research. She highlights the limitations of desk research and the importance of "being there," especially for understanding nuances and personal connections.

  "In person, people are more open to talking about...personal stories and experiences." [49:51]

• Positionality and Challenges: As a Serb working in Bosnia, Davidović expected her nationality to be a barrier—it wasn’t, and sometimes even helped. She shared both the emotional toll and sometimes uncomfortable encounters, like a failed interview with Bosnia’s chief prosecutor.

  "No amount of reading about fieldwork can prepare you for that." [52:40]

8. Looking Forward: Future Research

[53:14–54:35]

• Current Projects: Davidović is now pursuing research on knowledge production in international politics, focusing on how we "know" war and the authority of various fact-finding mechanisms across history, with anticipated continued focus on the Balkans.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Personal Relationship with Transitional Justice:
  "I feel like I have lived transitional justice all of my life or most of my life." [06:49]
• On the Limits of Transitional Justice:
  "The global project of transitional justice can in fact exacerbate people's anxieties about renewed conflict..." [19:13]
• On Ownership and Agency:
  "All of these outside interventions, transitional justice and otherwise did, is take away people's sense of ownership of their own past and with that, the present and the future." [44:18]
• On the Multiplication of Competing Narratives:
  "For ICTY it was an international armed conflict. For many in Bosnia and Herzegovina it was aggression... For Republika Srpska... a defensive patriotic war. For some... a civil war." [30:45]
• On the Nature of Non-Recurrence:
  "Non recurrence is constructed as the form of work rather than some actionable goal... it's open ended, it's fluid, no completion date, and it relies on other people joining the workforce." [44:18]

Detailed Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:05–11:07] — Setting the scene: post-conflict Bosnia, international interventions, personal motivation
• [11:33–20:17] — "Never Again" as a global imperative, causality, and critiques
• [21:31–29:46] — Ontological security/insecurity, transitional justice and identity
• [29:46–38:48] — The ICTY, lack of unified narrative, competing truths
• [41:24–47:53] — Hope, civic agency, "homework" of non-recurrence
• [47:53–53:05] — Methodology, fieldwork experiences, ethical challenges
• [53:14–54:35] — Future research directions

Tone and Style

The conversation is rigorously academic yet deeply personal and humane. Davidović blends personal narrative, scholarly critique, and practical insights, offering both sober analysis and hopeful perspectives.

Conclusion

This episode is a rich exploration of the promises and paradoxes at the heart of the transitional justice project, particularly as they manifest in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Davidović’s book, and this interview, challenge listeners to reconsider how we "govern the past," the psychological and social costs of global interventions, and the ongoing, collective work required to truly move toward "never again."