ODJEK is the oldest and the most respected magazine of this kind, whose reputation was built in former Yugoslavia and maintained throughout the war, as well as in the post-war period in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The continuous quality of ODJEK has been proved with the long list of highly significant and respected authors, who have contributed texts of importance in various domains on topics important for the development of the debate in a civic society.

In its history, almost half a century long, ODJEK published continuously (before the war it was published biweekly, and after the war due to the scarcity of resources periodically-four times a year). It maintained high standars of quality and cosmopolitan outlook by publishing prominent international contemporary authors, including Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Edward Said, Francis Fukuyama, Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdi, György Konrad, Isiah Berlin, Carlos Fuentes, V. S. Naipaul, Ian Buruma, Emil Cioran, Richard Rorty, Keith Doubt, Emanuele Severino...ODJEK also pays atention to its visual aspect, becoming a gallery that promotes works of contemporary Bosnian visual artists.

Despite the dominance of hate speech and widespread presence of nationalistic ideas in intellectual discourse of former Yugoslavia, ODJEK maintained loyalty to humanistic values and devotion to the ideas of a multicultural society. ODJEK is the only magazine of its kind that published throughout the siege of Sarajevo, and even in those difficult times kept the debate with the liberal intellectual circles from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia … which it maintained up to today.
. Members of the editorial board, editors or authors in fifty years of ODJEK’s existence, were the most prominent figures of the intellectual scene of former Yugoslavia. Those include the Nobel prize winner Ivo Andrić, famous writers like Miroslav Krleža and Meša Selimović, Oskar Davičo, Rade Konstantinović, Fuad Muhić, Esad Ćimić... Before the war ODJEK was awarding the ”Miroslav Krleža Award” for achievements in literature, and the ”ODJEK Award” for the best theater play at the well known MESS festival.

ODJEK- a review with a long history and remarkable reputation is published four times a year. It contains a large number of essays, stories, critiques, reviews, translations, as well as section on poetry. Famous authors have written for ODJEK and still are friends and supporters of this magazine. Many classics are translated and published in ODJEK. Each and every edition brings new and fresh ideas that give unique perspective to politics, science, and culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it also brings perspectives from around the world. For example, in the last four issues ODJEK had special theme of the issue, like “Multiculturalism and democracy”. One of the ODJEK topics was the relationship between “Islam and democracy,” as well as “The threat of terrorism and challenges it poses to democratisation.” In the latest issue of ODJEK the topic of war crimes prosecution in the former Yugoslavia region has the highest editorial priority. ODJEK is not just an intellectual magazine that covers higly abstract topics, or those of interest only to intellectuall circles. With its style and the selection of topics of utmost improtance for the whole society, ODJEK intends to narrow the gap between intellectuals and academia and the other sections of society. Only this kind of dialogue could help out in the proper articulation of the society's needs in search for the right path towards democratisation. Unfortunatelly, at present, high quality discussions, articles and new ideas are available only to the very narrow segment of public in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The situation is very much the same in all other regions of former Yugoslavia, and the reason is a troublesome economic situation, which makes it difficult to have these kind of outlets available to the wider public, especially the young student population. Therefore, due to its limited financial resources, ODJEK is accessible only to a limited number of its devoted readers-it is published in 500 copies.
 

That’s why we have decided to develop the ODJEK website. This website would contain an archive with a large volume of materials published in ODJEK in the recent past. This way we will reach a much larger audience and be available to all Internet users.