About The Host
The Voice Behind 'The Voices Of War'
Vedran ‘Maz’ Maslic
Frustrated by some of the naïve and misinformed narratives of war that dominate public discourse, The Voices Of War was started in February 2021 to challenge and correct some of these simple narratives. Having personally experienced the consequences of being caught in armed conflict from a young age, Maz seeks to bridge rather than widen the gap of understanding and bring to the fore alternative and more effective approaches to resolving local, regional, and global challenges.
Maz’s first encounter with war occurred in his home city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where at the age of ten, the peaceful life he knew ended abruptly. Having spent several months living in a cellar in the besieged city, Maz managed to escape with his mother and brother. His father, a fighting-age male at the time, remained behind to defend their homeland.
Maz then spent three and a half years living in Munich, Germany as a refugee, where he was not only forced to learn a new language but adjusting to a completely different culture, lifestyle, and place in society. This gave him a unique insight into the rarely discussed aspects of war experienced by those who’ve survived its horrors. As the war in Bosnia neared its end, Maz’s father joined the rest of the family in Germany, allowing them to migrate to Australia at the end of 1995.
In 2004, Maz joined the Australian Regular Army, fuelled by a desire to help those who couldn’t help themselves. During an initial ten years of service, he saw active service in Afghanistan and Timor Leste. After hanging up his boots, Maz returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina with his life partner, Esin, to establish the country’s first official box – CrossFit Sarajevo. The not-for-profit enterprise focused on using the sport of CrossFit to build bridges between those otherwise divided, supporting multiple charity events and donation drives in the process.
After three years in Sarajevo, Maz spent the next few years studying in Sweden before commencing work as a consultant in Iraq, overseeing the operations of a British post-conflict development consultancy. After nearly a year, Maz then found himself back in Sweden as an Adjunct Lecturer in communication at the University of Gothenburg.
In 2020, having returned to Australia in preparation for the arrival of the first of their two children, Maz re-joined the Australian Regular Army, where he currently serves as the Chief of Defence Force Research Fellow. As the CDF Fellow, Maz has commenced a PhD in Military Ethics, exploring the nexus between moral degradation and moral responsibility. Maz’s previous degrees are a BA in Politics, MA in Strategy and Management, MSc in Communication, and an MSc in Global Studies.
If you have any questions or would like to suggest a topic or guest for the show, please do not hesitate to reach out at info@thevoicesofwar.com.