Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Yugoslavia Publishing Institution EastWest Institute

1. VISA POLICIES IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE: A HINDRANCE OR A STEPPING STONE TO EUROPEAN INTEGRATION?

Author:
Martin Baldwin-Edwards
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
South Eastern Europe (SEE) has been under great pressure from the European Union (EU) to modernize and improve its border management, while simultaneously trying to facilitate cross-border flows and good neighborly relations in the region. The forthcoming accession to the EU of two countries from the region, Bulgaria and Romania, and recently opened negotiations for the accession of two more, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, have the potential to damage both cross-border flows and regional stability. One of the principal factors influencing this potential is the requirement for acceding countries to implement the Schengen regime – in particular, the so-called “black list” of countries whose nationals require visas to enter the Schengen area. At this time, from the Balkan region only Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are not on the “black list”.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Balkans, Romania, Macedonia, and Croatia

2. Border Management in the Kosovo-Southern Serbia-fYR Macedonia Vortex: a Local Perspective

Author:
Henry Bolton
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The impositions of firstly, the international border between the fYR Macedonia and Yugoslavia in 1992, and secondly the conversion of Kosovo's Administrative Boundary Line (the ABL), between the province of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia, into a de-facto border in 1999, have had significant impacts on the social and economic lives of the predominantly ethnic Albanian border communities of Kosovo, Serbia and fYR Macedonia within the GPKT (Gjilan/Gnjilane-Presevo-Kumanovo-Trgoviste) micro-region. The situation in the past, whereby the people of the micro-region could travel and interact freely, whether socially or commercially, has changed. Now people wishing to cross from one side of the GPKT micro-region to another, say Gjilan/Gnjiilane to Kumanovo, must cross what are, in effect, two policed and guarded borders, complete with passport checks and customs inspections.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and Macedonia

3. Sustainable Regional Development through Institutionalised Trans-frontier Cooperation in the Sofia-Skopje-Nis Triangle--Towards the Establishment of a Euroregion

Author:
Stoyan Totev and Maria Boyadjieva
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The transition process in Central and Eastern Europe was associated with increasing intra-regional disparities. It appears also that the regional inequalities in South east Europe are relatively high creating in the same time significantly higher economic and social problems. That refers to Bulgaria, Macedonia and FR Yugoslavia whereas every reform face serious difficulties due to the lower readiness for accession to the EU structures as well as for their backwardness in the economic development. In countries like Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia there exist enough resources for facing the negative effects from one or another reform as well as the necessary readiness of the population the reform s to be carried out.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia

4. TFC Nis-Sofia-Skopje: Euroregion Inauguration Conference

Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
At the strong initiative of the Mayors of the cities of Niš, Skopje and Sofia, and with the active support of the EastWest Institute's Programme for Transfrontier Cooperation, a long-term process was launched to intensify transfrontier cooperation between the border regions of the Republic of Bulgaria, the FYR Macedonia and the FR of Yugoslavia. The overall objective of this initiative is to employ intensified cross-border cooperation as a tool for regional economic development and integration within this Niš-Skoplje-Sofia Triangle, as well as to foster conditions of prosperity, security and peaceful co-existence between neighboring peoples and states.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Maryland

5. Cross-border business activities in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector in the Southern Adriatic border areas of Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Ivo Grkovic and Nikola Kalafatovic
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Analyzing the area of our interest and its economic perspective requires us to take a step back into the past and conclude that history repeats itself. Traditionally, this has been the area of trade, communication, as well as war. The last fifty years, up until the disintegration of ex-Yugoslavia, represented the longest period of peace in this region of different cultures, nations and history. In ex-Yugoslavia, these differences did not represent a limiting factor, and therefore the transport of people as well as goods was free and unlimited. Although the state borders existed, in the legal sense they were not of great importance. We can say that people living in this region were both geographically and economically directed towards each other. However, economic differences were present, and Croatia ranked as the second most developed state of ex-Yugoslavia (after Slovenia).
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Montenegro

6. Cross-border business activities in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector in the Southern Adriatic border areas of Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Ivo Grkovic and Nikola Kalafatovic
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Analyzing the area of our interest and its economic perspective requires us to take a step back in to the past and conclude that history rep eats itself. Traditionally, this has been the area of trade, communication, as well as war. The last fifty years, up until the disintegration of ex-Yugoslavia, represented the longest period of peace in this region of different cultures, nations and history. In ex-Yugoslavia, these differences did not represent a limiting factor, and therefore the transport of people as well as goods was free and unlimited. Although the state borders existed, in the legal sense they were not of great importance. We can say that people living in this region were both geographically and economically directed towards each other. However, economic differences were present, and Croatia ranked as the second most developed state of ex-Yugoslavia (after Slovenia).
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Maryland, and Slovenia

7. Inauguration of the Euroregion

Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
At the strong initiative of the Mayors of the ci ties of Niš, Skopje and Sofia, and with the active support of the EastWest Institute's Programme for Transfrontier Cooperation, a long-term process was launched to intensify transfrontier cooperation between the border regions of the Republic of Bulgaria, the FY R Macedonia and the FR of Yugoslavia. The overall objective of this initiative is to employ intensified cross-border cooperation as a tool for regional economic development and integration within this Niš-Skoplje-Sofia Triangle, as well as to foster conditions of prosperity, security and peaceful co-existence between neighboring peoples and states.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia

8. Overcoming Obstacles to Private Sector Investment in Macedonia and Albania

Publication Date:
11-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
South Eastern Europe remains one of the most volatile regions in Europe today. The conflict in Yugoslavia has wide-reaching political, social and economic implications not only for the immediate region, but also for Europe as a whole. It is, hopefully, the last chapter of military conflicts that had previously engulfed Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia- Herzegovina. It has added a new dimension to the already unfavorable external environment for many transition economies, worsening further their short-term economic outlook. The conflict-related economic damage already incurred is quite substantial.
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Albania, and Slovenia

9. Border and Ethnic Disputes in Russia's Western Borderlands: Crises Averted and Postponed

Publication Date:
05-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
The current crisis in and around Yugoslavia demonstrates the importance of ethnicity as a source of tension and armed conflict in post-Cold War Europe. Unsettled ethnic and border issues have been important characteristics of the European security environment after the collapse of the Soviet Union and have been the cause of much tension on the European continent.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia