B6245 - The Balkans: from War to European Integration

Learning outcomes

This course provides students with the analytical and conceptual tools to examine the political development of the Western Balkans in the post-war period, roughly since the end of the 1990s. This period has been characterized by a shift from managing the consequences of the wars of Yugoslav dissolution to the attempt to advance in the European integration process. Accordingly, students will acquire the critical theoretical tools necessary to study peacebuilding and enlargement processes in the region; they will explore the opportunities and obstacles that these transition processes present; and they will investigate some of the key themes (i.e. geopolitical competition, democratic backsliding, and social movements) that contribute to impact on the transition from war to European integration.

Course contents

This is a course based both on lectures and students’ participation and active engagement in class discussions and exercises. Its success depends on students being well prepared for each session.

It is divided into 2 main parts. The first section (16 hours) will introduce students to the key theoretical and analytical tools necessary to understand and critically evaluate political dynamics in Balkans, including international efforts to influence domestic processes. It will present and discuss the role of the key actors (domestic elites, civil society, and international interveners) both in the process of Yugoslav dissolution and the post-war attempt to develop closer links with the European Union.

The second part of the course (12 hours) is organized into discussion seminars. It will take into consideration the opportunities and obstacles facing post-Yugoslav states in their road to the EU. Students will apply the concepts, theoretical tools and contextual information analyzed during the first part in order to explore the cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. They will be divided into two groups and will attend one of the two weekly lectures (thus, as a whole students will attend a total of 28 hour of classes). All students are required to read the material in advance of the class meetings and be ready to engage with both the instructor and their peers. For each seminar 2/3 students will role-play the positions of the key actors involved in the process of EU enlargement, identifying and discussing the key controversial issues, while the audience in the class will engage them with their questions. Detailed explanations of this role-play exercise will be provided at the beginning of the course (some of the pedagogical ideas underpinning this activity can be found in R. Belloni, “Role-playing International Intervention in Conflict Areas: Lessons from Bosnia for Northern Ireland Education,” International Studies Perspectives, 2008, 9(2): 220-234).

All students should watch the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBTkAXnPZs

*Please note that the final version of the syllabus may contain few minor changes and will be uploaded on “Virtuale” shortly before the beginning of the semester

Readings/Bibliography

Part I: Lectures

1. Introduction: The Balkans and their Slow Disappearance (Thursday, 26 September)

   Required:

   - P. Simic, “ Do the Balkans Exist?”, in D. Triantapyllou, ed., The Southern Balkans: Perspectives from the Region. Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies, 2001 (pp. 17-35).

   - M. Todorova, “The Balkans: from Discovery to Invention,” Slavic Review, 1994, 53 (2): 453 - 482.

   Recommended:

• Hammond, A. “Balkanism in political context: From the Ottoman Empire to the EU,” Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 2006, 3 (3), 6–26.

1. Yugoslavia and its Demise (Thursday, 3 October)

   Required:

• Banac, I. “What Happened in the Balkans (or Rather ex-Yugoslavia)?” East European Politics and Societies, 2009, 23 (4): 461-478.
• Hoare, M. A. “The War of Yugoslav Secession,” in S. P. Ramet, ed., Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010 (11-135).
• Dragovic-Soso, J. “Why did Yugoslavia Disintegrate? An Overview of Contending Explanations,” in C. Stanley & J. Dragovic-Soso, eds., State Collapse in South-Eastern Europe: New Perspectives on Yugoslavia’s Disintegration. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press (1-39).

  Recommended:

• M. Bakic-Hayden, “Nesting Orientalism: The Case of Former Yugoslavia,” Slavic Review, 1995, 54 (4): 917-931.
• Ramet, S. P. “The Roots of Yugoslav Collapse,” in S.P. Ramet, Thinking About Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (54-75)

1. To Intervene or Not to Intervene to Stop the War(s)? (Thursday, 10 October)

   Required:

• Ramet, S. P. “Debates About Intervention,” in S.P. Ramet, Thinking About Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (220-242).
• Sharp, J.M.O., “Intervention in Bosnia – the Case For,” The World Today, 1993, vol. 49, p. 29-32.
• Dewar, M. “Intervention in Bosnia – the Case Against,” The World Today, 1993, vol. 49, p. 32-34.
• Belloni, R. “Kosovo and Beyond: Is Humanitarian Intervention Transforming International Society?” Human Rights and Human Welfare, 2 (1): 35- 43. Available: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=hrhw

  Recommended:

• BK Srivastava, M. Agarwal, “Politics of Intervention and the Bosnia-Herzegovina Conflict,” International Studies, 2003, 40 (1): 69-84.
• Watch the BBC documentary The Death of Yugoslavia, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsBTkAXnPZs (especially episodes 5 & 6).
• United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant General Assembly Resolution 53/35: the Fall of Srebrenica. 15 November 1999. Available: https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/unga/1999/en/32498

1. Post-War Transition(s) and the “Liberal Peace” (Wednesday, 23 October)

   Required:

• Belloni, R. “Peacebuilding in the Balkans,” ch. 1 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020.
• Belloni, R. “The Evolution of Peacebuilding,” ch. 2 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020.
• Belloni, R. “Stability and the Anti-corruption Agenda,” ch. 3 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020.

  Recommended:

• Richmond, O. & Franks, Liberal Peace Transitions: Between Statebuilding and Peacebuilding. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009, Introduction, Chapter 2, Chapter 4, Conclusion.
• Tepsic, G. & Vukelic, M. “Deconstructing Liberal Peacebuilding: Lessons from the Balkans,” The Review of International Affairs, 2022, 73 (1184): 71-89.

1. Enlargement: EUtopian Dreams (Thursday, 24 October)

   Required:

• Belloni, R. “EUtopia and the Pull of Integration,” ch. 5 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020
• Chandler, D. “The EU and Southeastern Europe: The Rise of Post-Liberal Governance,” Third World Quarterly, 2010, 31 (1): 69-85.
• Lika, L. “The Meaning of the Western Balkans Concept for the EU: Genuine Inclusion or Polite Exclusion?” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2024, 24 (1): 63-78.

  Recommended:

• Belloni, R. “Western Balkan Transitions and the Role of the European Union,” ch. 6 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020

1. The Enlargement Process (Wednesday, 30 October)

   Required:

• Miscevic, T. & Mrak, M., “The EU Enlargement Process: Western Balkans vs EU-10,” Croatian Political Science Review, 2017, 54 (4): 185-204.
• Petrovic, M. & Wilson, G. “Bilateral Relations in the Western Balkans as a Challenge for EU Accession,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2021, 29 (2): 201-218.
• Anghel, V. & Dzankic, J. “Wartime EU: Consequences of the Russia-Ukraine War on the Enlargement Process,” Journal of European Integration, 2023, 45 (3): 487-501.

  Recommended:

• Sekulic, T. “Framing the Field Within the Text: Analysis of the European Commission Reports on the Western Balkan Countries in a Longitudinal Perspective 2008–2019,” in Sekulic, T., The European Union and the Paradox of Enlargement. Houdmills: Palgrave, 2020 (89-173).
• Clingendael, eds., The EU as a Promoter of Democracy of ‘Stabilitocracy’ in the Western Balkans? The Hague: Clingendael, February 2022. Available at: https://www.thinkforeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/The-EU-as-a-promoter-of-democracy-or-stabilitocracy_2eproef.pdf
• European Stability Initiative (ESI). Scoreboard: The True State of Accession. What the Commission Assessments Reveal. Berlin: ESI. Available at: https://www.esiweb.org/sites/default/files/reports/pdf/ESI%20Scoreboard%20-%20the%20true%20state%20of%20accession%20-%2017%20March%202023.pdf

1. The Enlargement Problems (Thursday, 31 October)

   Required:

• Economides, S. From Fatigue to Resistance: EU Enlargement and the Western Balkans. Dahrendorf Forum, Working Paper 17, 20 March 2020. Available: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/104393/1/Economides_from_fatigue_to_resistance_published.pdf
• Vachudova, M. “EU Enlargement and State Capture in the Western Balkans,” in J. Dzankic, eds, The Europeanization of the Western Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave (63-85).
• Panagiotou, R. “The Western Balkans between Russia and the European Union: perceptions, reality, and impact on enlargement,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2021, 29 (2):

  Recommended:

• Liridon Lika, “The Western Balkans at the Crossroads of European Integration and the Emerging Powers’ Projection of Influence,” The Journal of Cross-Regional Dialogues, 2021, 2, https://popups.uliege.be/2593-9483/index.php?id=151
• Stojarova, V., “Moving Towards EU Membership and Away from Liberal Democracy,” Southeast European and Black Sear Studies, 2020, 20 (1): 221-236.
• Dudley, D. “European Union Membership Conditionality: The Copenhagen Criteria and Quality of Democracy,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2020, 20 (4): 525-545.
• Vukasovic, D., “The European Union and Otherness: the Case of the Balkans,” Nationalities Affairs New series, 50/2018, 1-12.

1. Social Movements and the Backlash Against Enlargement (Wednesday, 6 November)

   Mid-term In-class Exam

   Required:

• Stiks, I. & Stojakovic, K. The New Balkan Left: Struggles, Successes, Failures. Belgrade: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2021. Available: https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/images/Ausland/Osteuropa/STIKS_STOJAKOVIC-BALKAN_LEFT_WEB.pdf

  Recommended:

• Bieber, F. & Trentin, D. eds., Social Movements in the Western Balkans: Rebellion and Protest from Maribor to Taksim. London: Routledge, 2019.
• Belloni, R. “Local Views: Scepticism Towards Europe and Its Consequences,” ch. 7 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020.

  Part 2: Case Studies

1. Roleplay Bosnia-Herzegovina (7 November group 1 & 13 November group 2)

   Required:

• European Commission, 2023 Bosnia Progress Report, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/document/download/e3045ec9-f2fc-45c8-a97f-58a2d9b9945a_en?filename=SWD_2023_691%20Bosnia%20and%20Herzegovina%20report.pdf
• Council of Ministers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Communication Strategy of the Institutions of BiH on the Accession Process of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the European Union: from the Candidate Status to to Membership. Sarajevo: Directorate for European Integration, 2020. https://www.dei.gov.ba/uploads/documents/komunikacijska-strategija-eng-15-06-2020-web_1670836741.pdf
• Belloni, R. and “Undoing International Peacebuilding from Below?” Ch. 8 of Belloni, The Rise and Fall of Peacebuilding in the Balkans. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2020.

  Explore these documentary sources, among others:

• Bosnia Directorate for European Integration: https://www.dei.gov.ba/en/home
• European Commission: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/bosnia-and-herzegovina_en
• Initiative for Monitoring the European Integration of BiH: https://eu-monitoring.ba/en/

  Recommended:

• Siljak, D. & Nielsen, eds., K. Bosnia and Herzegovina and European Integration Obstacles and Challenges. Sarajevo: International University of Sarajevo, 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376170817_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina_and_European_Integration_Obstacles_and_Challenges_Edited_by_Dzenita_Siljak_Kristian_L_Nielsen
• Helms, E. “East and West Kiss: Gender, Orientalism and Balkanism in Muslim-Majority Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Slavic Review, 2008, 67 (1): 88-119.

1. Roleplay Serbia: (14 November group 1 & 20 November group 2)

   Required:

• European Commission, 2023 Serbia Progress Report, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/document/download/9198cd1a-c8c9-4973-90ac-b6ba6bd72b53_en?filename=SWD_2023_695_Serbia.pdf
• Belloni, R. “Serbia between East and West: Ontological Security, Vicarious Identity and the Problem of Sanctions against Russia,” European Security, 2024, 33 (2): 284-302.
• Drasko, G.P., Fiket, I., Vasilijevic, J., “Big Dreams and Small Steps: Comparative Perspectives on Social Movement Struggle for Democracy in Serbia and North Macedonia,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2020, 20 (1): 199-219.

  Explore these documentary sources, among others:

  European Commission: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/serbia_en

  Serbia Ministry of European Integration: https://www.mei.gov.rs/eng

  Recommended:

• Soylatin-Colella, D. “The EU Accession Process, Chinese Finance and Rising Corruption in Western Balkans: Serbia and Montenegro,” Europe-Asia Studies, 75 (8): 1311-1335.

1. Roleplay Kosovo: (21 November group 1 & 27 November group 2).

   Required:

• Lika, L., Reka, B. “The European Union’s Relations with the Republic of Kosovo,” in Hajrullah, ed., Forging Kosovo: Between Dependence, Independence, and Interdependence. Bern: Peter Lang, 2021 (229-250).
• Seebass, F. “License Plates to Kill?” Contemporary Southeastern Europe, 2022, 2: 81-91.
• Baracani, E. “Evaluating EU Actorness as a State-Builder in ‘Contested’ Kosovo,” Geopolitics, 2020, 25 (2): 362-386.
• Mahar, E. “Local Contestation Against the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo,” Contemporary Security Policy, 2018, 39 (1): 72-94.

  Explore these documentary sources, among others:

  EULEX Rule of Law Mission Kosovo: https://www.eulex-kosovo.eu/?page=2,78

  European Commission: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/kosovo_en

  European Union External Action Service: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/kosovo_en

  Kosovo Directorate for European Integration: https://integrimievropian.rks-gov.net/en/european-integration/

  Recommended:

• Bargués, P. Dandashly, A., Dijkstra, H. & Noutcheva, G. , “Engagement against All Odds? Navigating Member States’ Contestation of EU Policy on Kosovo”, The International Spectator, 2024, 59 (1): 19-38.
• Ker-Lindsady, J. & Armakolas, I. eds., Lack of Engagement: Surveying the Spectre of Member States Policies Towards Kosovo. Pristina: Open Society, 2017.

1. Roleplay North Macedonia (28 December group 1 & 4 December Group 2)

   Required:

• European Commission, 2023 North Macedonia Progress Report, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/north-macedonia-report-2023_en
• Demjaha, A. “The Path of North Macedonia Towards the European Union,” Justicia, 2020, 8 (13-14): 9-16.
• Ceka, B. “Macedonia: A New Beginning?” Journal of Democracy, 2018, 29 (2): 143-157.
• Mavromatidis, F. “ The Role of the European Union in the Name Dispute between Greece and FYR of Macedonia,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2010, 18 (1): 47-62.

  Explore these documentary sources, among others:

• European Commission: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/north-macedonia_en
• Directorate for European Integration: https://www.mfa.gov.mk/en/page/438/directorate-for-european-union

  Recommended:

• Tziampiris, Aristotle. 2012. “The Macedonian name dispute and European Union accession.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 12 (1): 153-171.

1. Roleplay Montenegro (5 December group 1 & 11 December group 2)

   Required:

• European Commission, 2023 Montenegro Progress Report, https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/document/download/e09b27af-427a-440b-a47a-ed5254aec169_en?filename=SWD_2023_694%20Montenegro%20report.pdf
• Dzankic, J. “Reconstructing the Meaning of Being ‘Montenegrin’”, Slavic Review, 2014, 73 (2): 347-371.
• Komar, O. “The Elephant in the Room: Illiberal Politics in Montenegro,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2020, 20 (1): 61-80.
• Bechev, D. The 2016 Coup Attempt in Montenegro: Is Russia’s Balkan Footprint Expanding? Foreign Policy Research Institute, 2018. Available: https://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BechevFinal2018.pdf
• D. Bechev, “Montenegro’s Window of Opportunity,” Carnegie, 12 March 2024, https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2024/03/montenegros-window-of-opportunity?lang=en&center=europe

  Explore these documentary sources, among others:

• European Commission: https://neighbourhood-enlargement.ec.europa.eu/enlargement-policy/montenegro_en
• Ministry of European Affaris: https://www.gov.me/en/mep

  Recommended:

• Morrison, K. “Progress, Protests and Political Crisis (2012-2016),” in Morrison, Nationalism, State and Identity in Post-Yugoslav Montenegro. London: Bloomsbury, 2018 (151-168).
• Luksic, I., Pejovic, A. “The Role of Civil Society in Montenegro’s European Union Accession Process,” in Briguglio, L. et al., Handbook of Civil Society and Social Movements in Small States. London: Routledge, 2023 (ch. 18).
• Vuckovic, V. Europeanizing Montenegro: The European Union, the Rule of Law and Regional Cooperation. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
• Balazs, A. B. ed., The Europeanization of Montenegro. Nomos, 2021.

1. Conclusions (12 December group 1 & 18 December group 2)

Assessing the process of European integration

Final in-class exam

Teaching methods

Classes will mix traditional lectures, group discussions on assigned readings, and presentations and debates on case studies.

Assessment methods

Attendance is compulsory.

Students who do regularly attend classes (at least 5 out of 6 class meetings of the second part of class on case studies):

Mid-term in-class exam: 40% of the final grade

Participation in class and role-play: 20% of the final grade

Final in-class exam: 40% of the final grade.

Teaching tools

ppt & audio-visuals

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Belloni