Abstract
The Western Balkans represent a unique laboratory for exploring a wide array of parallel-tracked political processes. Over the past three decades, the region has experienced manifold state disintegrations, violent and non violent conflict between and within countries, as well as a delayed transition to democracy and market economy. All of these experiences have been framed through the concurrent, overlapping, and conflicting dynamics of nation- and state-building processes and aspirations to join the European Union (EU). Understanding nuances of the interplay between these processes is central to understanding why the carrot of EU membership, has had different and differentiated effects in the Western Balkans compared to Central and Eastern Europe. Against this backdrop, the Introduction provides a general overview of the topic of the book and situates the individual contributions in the wider discussions on Europeanisation. It also offers a methodological umbrella for each chapter and guides the reader through the edited volume.
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Notes
- 1.
At this point authors would like to introduce several terminological clarifications. Most international scholars, and in recent years even domestic authors, have chosen to follow the lead of the EU, which since 1999 has considered the geographical region of Southeastern Europe to be composed of two parts, whereas the second subgroup consists of the successor states to the former Yugoslavia (minus Slovenia) together with Albania. These states are dubbed the Western Balkans which the authors will use in this volume contextually since it includes all the countries under the scrutiny. This, however, is not the only open terminological issue. The official EU documents use the term Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Authors will employ the term Macedonia, unless citing an official EU document. Similarly, Kosova is the preferred usage by local authorities, but this book will use the term Kosovo, which is more frequently used in English-language sources. For the country known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the accepted short forms Bosnia and BiH will be used throughout this book, and refer to the whole country.
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Džankić, J., Keil, S., Kmezić, M. (2019). Introduction: The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans. In: Džankić, J., Keil, S., Kmezić, M. (eds) The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans. New Perspectives on South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91412-1_1
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