This compilation of essays by scholars from the region, Western Europe, and the US, explores the intersection of international politics in the post-Yugoslav states with a focus on the influence and ...impact of the European Union, the United States, Russia, China, and Turkey. The implications of external actors’ policy in the region for its Euro-Atlantic integration, its security, and stability are examined and discussed. In assessing the importance of the post-Yugoslav states for the EU and US and the current trend of disengagement by these two democratic actors in the region, answers are revealed regarding the question whether we are seeing a new Eastern Question emerging in the post-Yugoslav states. Likewise, when looking at the role of Russia, China, and Turkey in the region—and in contrast to European and US policies—, it becomes obvious to what extent the region, once again, is becoming the playground of Great Power games and wider geopolitical strategic interests.
The analytical time frame covers the period 1991–2018. The changes in the foreign policies of great powers are explored as they relate to the institutional set-up of the region. For instance, do the changes affect the EU’s hegemony in the region? Do Russia, China, and Turkey actively contribute to changing the rules of the game in the region—be it the accession process or regional cooperation?
This study provides an overview of current nation building processes in contested states. With a specific focus on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and ...Kosovo, original data is presented, collected in English in a single work for the first time. Viktoria Potapkina presents an analysis and comparison of contested states from an internal perspective, looking at the processes that help legitimize such entities from within and creating support for their ongoing existence.
The work strives to fill a gap in the literature on contested states, as well as to contribute to the overall understanding of nation and state building, state formation, and sovereignty. It provides a new way of looking at the puzzle that contested states are, offering insight into why they still exist in their current forms.
The Geopolitics of Memory Riding, James; Dzankic, Jelena; Keil, Soeren
2019, 20190930, Volume:
2
eBook
In this daring experiment in ethnographic place-writing, cultural geographer James Riding aims to get at the heart of post-conflict Bosnia showing the past alongside the present it created via a ...series of journeys and through the retelling of memories. The juxtaposition of the siege of Sarajevo and supersonic metal, the refugee journey and the aid worker traveling in the other direction, the desperation and fury to change the present yet being stuck with many of the ethnonationalist politicians and politics of the past—it is a journey to Bosnia as it is understood today in popular discourse, a war-torn place defined by ethnic conflict, yet also a journey to deconstruct and reveal more than ancient ethnic hatreds portrayed on television screens across the globe from 1992 to 1995. Heavy with the weight of history, on the one hand, and an inspirational place with radical emancipatory politics on the other, it is only through innovative storytelling that one can attempt to give a sense of what Bosnia itself is like in words for those who have never been, and—most importantly—for those who are from there.
This article examines the foreign policy of two of the post-Yugoslav states - Montenegro and Serbia. The two countries shape their external relations through attempts to balance domestic ...ethno-political compounds with their aspirations to become member states of the European Union (EU). The main question of the article is to what extent their respective national identities pose an obstacle to the Montenegrin and Serbian foreign policy vis-à-vis the EU. By making use of Hansen and Waever's identity theory, we examine the different roots and manifestations of the state-nation constellation in the two countries.
The break-up of the former Yugoslavia resulted in the establishment of seven states with manifestly different citizenship regimes. Relating the politics of citizenship to the dominant nation-building ...projects, this paper argues that in the post-Yugoslav countries in which nation-building projects are consolidated (Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia) citizenship regimes converge around ethnic inclusiveness, while in those where nation building is contested (Macedonia and Montenegro) territorial rather than ethnic attachments are articulated in citizenship policies. In the case of Kosovo, and to a certain degree Bosnia and Herzegovina, policies emphasise territory due to international involvement in the shaping of their citizenship regimes. Even though all of these states have adopted ius sanguinis as the main mechanism of citizenship attribution at birth, the different approaches to naturalisation and dual citizenship indicate that the politics of citizenship are inextricably linked to the questions of nation building and statehood. To explore these issues, the paper first outlines the main traits of citizenship policies in contested and consolidated states. It proceeds by looking at different naturalisation requirements in the two groups of states. It argues that extension to ethnic kin occurs only in countries in which statehood and nation building are consolidated, where it serves to project an image of national unity. In states that are challenged by several competing nation-building projects, citizenship attribution through ethnic kinship is impossible due to lack of internal unity. The paper also analyses approaches to dual citizen-ship, identifying patterns of openness and restrictiveness. By doing so, it links the politics of citizenship to the interaction of foreign policy mechanisms in post-Yugoslav countries and identifies the points where these regimes overlap or conflict with each other.
Although there has been a significant change in the content of the category of Montenegrin identity, the policies adopted by the Montenegrin government within its nation-building project have been ...only partly successful. This study examines popular support for the policies that have helped to reconstruct Montenegrin identity in the decades following the disintegration of socialist Yugoslavia. The specific focus is on the symbolic reconstruction of identity parameters in Montenegro after the split of the ruling party in 1997, and the start of political divisions in this tiny Balkan state. By examining original quantitative and qualitative data, the analysis associates the divide related to the question of statehood with perceptions of identity, showing how the content of national identity categorized as Montenegrin changed as a result of people’s support for or opposition to Montenegrin independence.
I would be most happy if Dora Kostakopoulou’s vision of an autonomous EU citizenship came into being. However, there are two key normative and practical pitfalls of her proposal. First, the ...decoupling of statuses that she proposes poses the risk of ‘free riding’ on EU citizenship rights for those who had, at some point enjoyed, and then lost, this status. Second, having in mind the different definitions of residence across the Member States, linking the acquisition of EU citizenship to this status is like putting a roof on a house with uneven walls.
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