Event Recap: The Siege of Sarajevo and the Legacy of the First World War by Brian Francis
On April 7, a fascinating discussion among leading war experts and historians took place in the Appel Salon to a sold-out crowd as part of the Keep Toronto Reading Festival. The panelists included historian Margaret MacMillan (The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914); Janice Stein, head of the Munk School of Global Affairs; and Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s former deputy minister for global and security policy.
The evening began with host Carol Off (CBC’s As It Happens) quoting Margaret MacMillan: “History is our authority. It can vindicate us and judge us and damn those who oppose us.”
In spite of the years between the First World War and the Siege of Sarajevo, Off pointed out that an arc can be drawn between the two events. In 1914, it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria which directly led to the start of First World War. In April 1992, two women were shot dead in the streets of Sarajevo which resulted in the four-year siege.
As MacMillan stated, Sarajevo was a wonderful place up until that time, full of different cultures, religions and languages, but it was precisely this diversity that made it potentially dangerous. “Sarajevo was a place with great potential for trouble,” she told the audience.
Stein mentioned the book that everyone knew before MacMilllan’s book (Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August), which portrayed an inexorable chain of events leading to war, but what makes MacMillan’s book different in Stein’s eyes is that it’s a book about why people make a difference.
There were differences of opinion between Stein and Heinbecker about the success of the United Nations with Stein stating that the UN has failed. “If it’s so divided that it can’t act, then it fails,” she said.
Other topics discussed included nationalism, Responsibility to Protect and the Quebec sovereignty movement. Timely parallels were drawn to the current situation in the Ukraine and Syria, proving that the events of the past aren’t always lessons learned. As MacMillan stated, “We all think of history as this safe thing that’s sitting there in the past, but it’s not. It’s a very dangerous thing that can…be brought into the present.”
Watch the video of the full discussion below.
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