The Hidden Handshake National Identity and Europe in the Post-Communist World

The Hidden Handshake uses four distinct, yet intertwined essays to address the questions surrounding our notions of citizenship, national identity, and cosmopolitan belonging. The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the undercurrent of EU enlargement stand out as two contrasting movements that highlight the importance of having a national identification while also defying it to avoid both the rigidity of nationalist exclusivism and the blithe nonsense of global citizenship.

Ales Debeljak is the director of the Center for Cultural and Religious Studies at the School of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.