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In Dana Bittnerova & Mirjam Moravcova (eds.), Balkan Express: Invisible, Overlooked, Forgotten. Dil. IV.: pp. 145-185. Faculty of Humanities at Charles University, Prague, 2019.

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In Dana Bittnerova & Mirjam Moravcova (eds.), Etnické komunity - Hrdinové, šibalové a antagonisté Balkánu. Dil. III.: pp. 377-398. Faculty of Humanities at Charles University, Prague, 2017.

The Bosnian Muslim war leader, Alija Izetbegović, had a key role in capturing the previous political empowerment of Bosnian Muslims during communism for the sake of his own-led effort of Bosnian Muslim nation-building through Bosnian independence and state-building in the 1990s. The (resultant) war helped bring about a consolidation and advancement of a politically expressed Bosnian Muslim (or Bosniak) national identity.

The article discusses how the Bosnian civil war (1992-95) was a decisive and formative identity and nation-building event, for all three national groups in Bosnia, but particularly for the Bosnian Muslims. This war can be characterized as a key “event” of series of disputed “events” which are determining contemporary identities in Bosnia and beyond. They are used to create stories from which each national groups can derive identity and can build internally shared social memory. But simultaneously the lack of any common interpretation in Bosnia of these events, or respect for each other’s explanations and narratives, are hindering reconciliation and is making Bosnia a failed state.

The article analyzes how identity cleavages are related to the competing monochrome historical narratives about the war in post-war Bosnia. It gives examples of the interdependence and relational dynamics of identity formation in Bosnia.

The article concludes that the war had a constitutive role for national identity and this effect was particularly noteworthy and important in the case of the Bosnian Muslims. Yet, their “nationness” was still a contingent event, among other related to Yugoslav nationality policies and the federal territorial organization during Tito.

in Serbian Studies: Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies, Volume 21, Number 1, 2007 (November 2009), 2 (1),: pp. 55-67. Web: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/369270/pdf

The central objective of this article is to trace the ideological background of the frequent exclusion of the Serbian minority in Croatia from Croatian history books. Croatian avoidance or non-recognition of its Serbian history is sought-after in relation to the development of the Croatian state-nation ideology in the nineteenth century. In tracking the ideological background for exclusion the explanations appear not to be purely local ones, but to be closely linked to developments of nineteenth-century European nationalism and national ideologies. This paper analyzes some key modern historical events and processes that have influenced the relationship between Croats and Serbs in Croatia. The topic is exemplified through examination of history textbooks for high schools in Croatia. The article suggests strategies to support for achieving inclusion and identifies the main obstacles in this regard, but methodologically it concentrates on bringing about awareness of the background of exclusion as a necessary step in fostering inclusion.

The main topic of this research work of 155 pages is national and social identities in the Austrian Military Border in Croatia-Slavonia from the national-liberal revolutions in 1848-49 to the abolishment of the Military Border institution and territory in 1881.

A key feature in the region was the relative good and persistent bonds of loyalty of the Border soldiers to the Emperor in Vienna as a result of tax privileges in return for military service. The work demonstrates how the rise of Serbian, Croatian, and Hungarian national movements in the second half of the 19th century impacted the traditionally harmonious relationship between the Orthodox and Catholic population of the Border regions.

A central focus of attention is the impacts from Serbian and Croatian nationalism and national ideologies, especially the expansion of the Serbian principality and kingdom in the 19th century, as a positive example of national and social liberation in the Western Balkans.

This research work was awarded with the excellent grade 2,2 (laudabilis) at the University of Bergen, with which Seim was awarded the Norwegian Cand.Philol. degree, which is somehow similar but not equivalent with an MA, but more comprehensive as it included 6 years of university studies altogether.

This work is currently available in Norwegian only. An English translation might be produced.

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These 18 reports from work assignments/secondments for OSCE-ODIHR, European Union/EEAS, and The Carter Center were delivered to The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo, NORCAP: The Norwegian Refugee Council, and a final report drafts to The Carter Center, Atlanta. They cover key elections in SEIM Analytic’s targeted geographical areas of analytical focus and professional competence, namely and predominantly Southeast and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia.

These internal reports are usually forwarded MFA, internal teams, and other stakeholders.

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Since 1995, Seim has frequently explored and shared analyses of Central/Eastern Europe by some 50 times publishing a variety of analyses and commentary about post-war Yugoslav politics and society (Serbia, FYROM/North Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia) in Norwegian newspapers, and twice in newspapers in Denmark and Serbia. Seim has also written about elections and politics in USA, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Libya, Syria, and the Middle East.

Click below to see a sample of this newspaper commentary, analysis, and field reports: