PODCAST

East of Ethnia Podcast

Eric Gordy

Balkan politics, society, and culture, with some forays into other things. ericgordy.substack.com

science social sciences

All Episodes

10:10

Surprise lifting of US sanctions against Dodik and co.

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/10/30

Here are links to some of the sources mentioned in the video:The statement/nonstatement from the US Department of State: https://www.danas.rs/svet/stejt-department-o-ukidanju-sankcija-dodiku/Dodik’s lobbying campaign targeting individuals in the Tr*mp inner circle: https://n1info.ba/vijesti/nyt-lobisti-prikazali-dodika-kao-zrtvu-politickih-progona-uz-cijenu-lobiranja-od-300-hiljada-dolara-mjesecno/That weird text by Roger Stone: http://bit.ly/4oOXA6m This is a public episode. If you would like to

9:53

Introducing our new (FREE!) book

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/10/20

DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY HERE! https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789633866436/captured-societies-in-southeast-europe(follow the link to “open access”)Let me begin with a few basic details. The title of the book is Captured societies in Southeast Europe: Networks of trust and control. It is published jointly by Central European University Press and Amsterdam University Press. It is edited by me with two other colleagues, Alena Ledeneva of UCL and Predrag Cvetičanin of University of Niš. There are several other

7:39

Right on for the darkness

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/08/27

Here are just a few links to the sources of the information discussed in the video.From Raskrinkavanke: “Iza zatvorenih vrata: Direktori Telekoma i United Group-e se dogovarali kako da oslabe medije ove grupe.” 27 August 2025 — https://www.raskrikavanje.rs/page.php?id=Iza-zatvorenih-vrata-Direktori-Telekoma-i-United-Group-e-se-dogovarali-kako-da-oslabe-medije-ove-grupe-1507From N1: “OCCRP: Direktor Telekoma i izvršni direktor United Grupe u pregovorima o slabljenju N1 u Srbiji.” 27 August 2025

6:46

Protests in Serbia: A post-mortem on the post-mortem

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/08/14

Things were looking bleak for the student protest movement in July: they had caused themselves some political discredit with an evening of desničarenje, some divisions were becoming apparent, and the police repression seemed, for a time, to be working. Not so in August: the regime is once again losing the plot and the protests are gaining back force.What made the difference? In a word, violence. Let’s talk a bit about how regimes that engage in violence undermine their own legitimacy and reveal

10:28

Dodiku nema ko da piše

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/08/03

Milorad Dodik's criminal conviction, carrying a (short) prison sentence and a six-year ban on holding public office, has been sustained on appeal. Some politicians and other institutions in Serbia are making a little noise, but he is not getting much support from inside RS or BiH. The reason for his failure is his success: years of propaganda have meant that there is no substantial opposition to his (chauvinistic) ideas, and the informal network that he built to control all access to employment and

5:48

The word of the day is confrontation

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/07/04

Today the students and citizens in protest are responding to a wave of arrests and police violence by blockading traffic routes in cities across the whole of Serbia. The strategy of blockading creates asymmetrical conditions in which the advantage does not fall to the side that is armed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ericgordy.substack.com

10:30

Vidovdan je a ispada da ovo manje volim

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/06/29

Oh yes indeed, the protest was poisoned with all kinds of national bullsh*t. Here’s why, why it matters, and why it’s probably worth supporting them anyway. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ericgordy.substack.com

12:02

The situation is changed in Serbia. The lummox is...

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2025/06/09

Local elections in two locations in Serbia yesterday have resulted in a standoff: both the regime and its opponents are claiming victory, both are claiming abuses by the other side, and both are saying that this moment is a watershed.They are both right. I’m offering a (not very bold) prediction: parliamentary elections will be called this year. And I’m offering an overview of some of the high risks that come with entering into an election without electoral reforms that would make a free and fair

7:15

“An end to the false ecologists!”

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/12/12

Today we are doing a little bit of propaganda analysis, from Večernje novosti, the paper that is the Miles Davis of sycophancy (that’s right Kurir, Informer, and the rest of you, you’re the Kenny G. And Politika, you’re Paul Whiteman).For the masochistic or the curious, here is the article we will be looking at: https://www.novosti.rs/c/planeta/svet/1438855/tramp-svirao-kraj-lazne-ekologe-ova-vest-sve-promeniti-cuta-kokanovic-uskoro-morati-shvate This is a public episode. If you would like to

7:36

Bloody traces

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/11/24

We know about the faulty construction in Novi Sad that caused 15 fatalities. Here are two more news stories just from today:The directors promise that there is nothing wrong with the roof of the Belgrade Arena — https://n1info.rs/biznis/otkrivamo-institut-godinama-upozorava-arenu-na-krov-direktor-hale-kaze-da-je-nebezbedno-odmah-bismo-zatvorili/In Zaječar, “the burst pipes bear witness to the quality of this regime” — https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/rekonstrukcija-zajecar-popucale-cevi-rezim/

9:53

A US election postmortem from the Balkans

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/11/06

Sorry about my hoarse voice, I was following election returns all night. Not that it was a satisfying experience. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ericgordy.substack.com

8:43

Sending thugs with explosives against the students? Why?

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/09/23

Are you as mystified as everyone else as to why a group masked thugs was sent to beat and throw explosives at a group of protesting students in Novi Sad? Most authoritarian regimes can tolerate losing some small prizes, like the student parliament at a university. The fact that the Serbian regime can’t tells us something about the character of the system of rule: it relies on informal networks of trust and exchange, and on people depending on these networks. This kind of system can’t afford to have

15:10

Who are Project 2025's international policy authors?

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/08/28

Yesterday I posted a short essay outlining what the notorious “Project 2025” document has to say about international policy. And I promised a video describing who the authors of the sections I used are, so here is that video. And here are links to items mentioned in the video.About Kiron Skinner: Her online bio at the Hoover Institution: https://www.hoover.org/profiles/kiron-k-skinner She was briefly at US Department of State, in the Office of Policy Planning, then moved to Carnegie Mellon

10:56

The true enough story of ćevapčići

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/08/18

Here are links to items mentioned in the video:The initiative to protect the unique Sarajevo ćevap — https://n1info.rs/region/sarajevski-cevap-zasticen-kao-brend-uskoro-zastita-somuna/ The legal fight over who has the rights to Sultanahmet köfte continues — https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/legal-fight-continues-over-ownership-of-sultanahmet-kofte-despite-ruling-105613Branislav Nušić’s (probably not entirely accurate) memories of kafane past —

11:15

President Harris's foreign policy

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/07/22

I’m predicting that Kamala Harris will probably be elected the next president of the United States (like any prediction this could be right or wrong, so in November please feel free to congratulate me for being right or ridicule me for being wrong). What can we expect from her foreign policy? We do not have a lot of signs to go by, but we can be guided by a few main ideas: 1) US foreign policy does not change a lot with changes of administration, 2) Biden has been mostly all right but has been held

7:28

Let's talk about lithium

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/07/20

The leaders of the regime in Serbia see the state's future in lithium mining, and the EU is in a hurry to make them commit to that vision before they think about it. We already know about the environmental damage that lithium mining causes — so does the regime, because protests forced them to back down on this plan once. What about social consequences? Think about every resource extraction state you know of, whether the resource we are talking about is legal (petroleum, palm oil) or illegal (coca

5:58

Post-conflict revisionism

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/06/18

When historical truth becomes a commodity and the people interested in using facts as a basis for dialogue and mutual recognition are pushed to the side, the space of memory is dominated by ethnic entrepreneurs. And they all want the same thing: a monopolised story, or competing cartels, in which there are no human victims, just nations. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ericgordy.substack.com

8:21

It's a Russian Party!

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/06/05

A party registered as an ethnic minority party (this means they get seats in the assembly without having to meet a vote threshold) holds the balance of power in the city of Niš. The “Russian Party” has leadership that is not Russian and no Russian members. Okay, two Russian members if you want to be a picajzla about it. What does this strange set of facts mean? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

7:53

What happened while they were wrapping themselves in...

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/05/29

A few articles on events that are mentioned in the video:* The children’s clinic cancels their donated cable service: https://n1info.rs/vesti/nije-to-vasa-bolnica-i-privatna-prcija-brojne-negativne-reakcije-na-odluku-tirsove-da-otkaze-donaciju-sbb/* On the use of the “Telekom” company to consolidate media control: https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2021/03/09/serbian-government-weaponized-state-owned-telekom-to-curb-media-freedom/* The ongiong campaign by “Telekom” to squeeze out “SBB”:

10:32

Talking about genocide, again

East of Ethnia Podcast ·

2024/05/13

The Genocide Convention created a crime that was well near impossible to prove before a court, which is why there were no convictions for genocide until 1998 and there have not been many afterward. The record of ICTY shows just how high the barrier has been set: they found that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, but did not find that it occurred anywhere else or that the VRS’s war aims (which explicitly included altering the population to suit their political goals) were genocidal. Pretty much

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