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1. Involved By Default: External Actors And Foreign Policy Of The Western Balkan States

Author:
Esref Kenan Rasidagic
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The foreign policy of the Western Balkan states is formulated on the basis of several factors, many of which do not reflect their strategic national interests. An important contributing factor is that all Western Balkan countries could be defined as small states, despite the fact that within the region some of them are considered as being comparatively large and strong. The potential for formulation and implementation of foreign policy in all of these states is very low, due to a number of reasons. These include small territories and population, weak economies, unfinished democracy- building processes, and a generally unsettled situation, typical of transitional societies. All these aspects make states in the region to a large extent dependant on the interests of bigger powers, as well as susceptible to policies of the international organizations active in the region. Western Balkan states, therefore, to varying extents, identify their foreign policies with the policies of different external actors.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and International Organization
Political Geography:
Balkans

2. Democratizing Justice in the Post-Conflict Balkans: The Dilemma of Domestic Human Rights Activists

Author:
Arnaud Kurze
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Years of international and national accountability efforts in the former Yugoslavia have only partially helped post-conflict societies to transition. To complement retributive justice efforts more recently, human rights activists have launched a campaign to establish a regional truth commission. This article explores the intricate efforts among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in several states across the region – particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina, croatia and Serbia – to coordinate this movement. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study illustrates the movement's struggle from within – caused by the conflicting interests of its members – and from outside, as it seeks support from international and region-specific organizations as well as national governments. While activists have remained unsuccessful in institutionalizing new truth spaces, this article argues that the state-centered strategy of human rights advocates during the campaign widened the gap between the activist leaders and victims' groups, their principal supporters.
Topic:
Human Rights
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and Balkans

3. Reciprocal Perceptions Between Western Balkan Countries And The EU: News Coverage on the EU Accession Process In Daily Newspapers

Author:
Romy Wöhlert
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
Against the background of increasing EU enlargement fatigue amongst EU countries, and with the official negotiation process with the Western Balkan countries currently underway, a comparative analysis of current reciprocal perceptions between both sides is carried out to identify potential conflict lines, and to trace how the EU is currently perceived from inside and from. In an exploratory media study three EU countries (Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom) and two Western Balkan countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina BiH and Serbia) are compared. This paper shows that the reciprocal perceptions are not only shaped by assumed distance and difference, but also by proximity and similarities. However, the communicated boundaries and obstacles between EU and non-EU also show some indicate barriers for Western Balkan countries in the accession steps lying ahead. Furthermore, the media study suggests a broadening of the analytical spectrum to include thematic areas that go beyond political discourse.
Political Geography:
Germany, Balkans, and Austria

4. Eldar Sarajlic and Davor Marko (eds.), State or Nation? The Challenges of Political Transition in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo: University of Sarajevo, 2011)

Author:
Maja Nenadovic
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
This edited volume brings together “the coming generation of Balkan social scientists” in an effort to open up discussion and shed light in various elements of Bosnia-Herzegovina's troubled post-conflict transition processes. The book, like others focusing on the same subject, illustrates why Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) remains the most intriguing piece in the puzzle of Yugoslavia's disintegration. In the most ethnically diverse republic of Yugoslavia, the particularly bloody conflict shocked the world that was watching in disbelief as international community scrambled to respond to the escalating crisis. The Dayton Peace Agreement put an end to the war but put into place a dysfunctional political system fashioned with consociational characteristics that resulted in ethnicization of politics, education and just about every other aspect of life in the country. Finally, the unprecedented international intervention that culminated in the institution of 'international administration', as embodied by the Office of the High Representative (OHR), made BiH the 'perfect' social experiment in the making. As an extreme or crucial case study, it attracted hordes of social scientists analyzing peace building, intervention, state building, nation-building and post-conflict reconstruction. With the international administration now in its sixteenth year of presence on the ground and with the political situation spiraling out of control to the point of talk among (nationalist) political elites of renewed conflict, it is not difficult to understand why the country is a mess that continues to fascinate.
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and Balkans