Tag: Balkans

Balkans split between East and West (but still room for engagement)

     

With the exception of Kosovo (53 percent), respondents from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), North Macedonia or Serbia generally do not feel that they belong definitively to either West or East, according to a new poll by the… Read more »

Balkans: Putin’s next playground or E.U.’s last moral stand?

     

The Balkans has once again become a playground for great power politics, says analyst Ivan Krastev. European Union policy toward the Balkans is more driven by ideology than in any other… Read more »

West Side Story: resolving Serbia-Kosovo line could end Balkans impasse

     

A correction of the de facto border – or “administrative line” – between Serbia and Kosovo could be the precursor to a comprehensive agreement on Serbia’s border disputes with Bosnia… Read more »

Trouble brewing in the Balkans

     

It has been more than two decades since I worked with Richard Holbrooke and our team to negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia. NATO deployed and then acted… Read more »

Russia looks to Balkans as a battlefield in ‘political war’ with the West

     

With migration, Russian aggressiveness and Brexit, the European Union is taking the western Balkans seriously again, the New York Times reports: The bloc’s strategy for the Western Balkans, published in February,… Read more »

Western Balkans vulnerable to ‘corrosive capital?’

     

Malign outside influence in the Western Balkans, in particular by Russia, is of increasing concern. The lack of a strong legal framework makes countries in the region especially vulnerable to… Read more »

Western Balkans double standard and malign foreign influence spur extremism

     

There’s a double standard in the Western Balkans, according to analysts Jelena Beslin and Marija Ignjatijevic. Governments in the region generally equate violent extremism with Islamist radicalization and local youths… Read more »

Southeast Europe: strengthen democracy to counter malign foreign influence

     

US withdrawal from the Balkans, mainly due to the absence of a consistent foreign policy agenda, has created a vacuum of leadership that other political actors are trying to assume…. Read more »