Laboratory Western Balkans – Vol. 1

As one of the hotspots of the world in the last decade of the 1990s the Western Balkans required energetic Western engagement designed primarily to settle the conflicts and then to guide the nations in the region in creating and sustaining democratic political institutions which were expected to cushion intra-national tensions and to serve to the normalization of inter-state relations. However, despite almost two-decade-long Western guidance, assistance and conditionality, as many experts point out, the Western Balkans is still an insulated region in the democratic and prosper Europe, where democratic reforms slowpedal, corruption remains widespread and inter-ethnic tensions continue to threaten societal peace. This academic activity aims at discussing the reasons as to why the Western-version democratic polities could not be created in the region so far, under the guidance of the views regarding the pros and cons of the Western engagement, prevailing political cultures, inter-faith relations, involvement of great and regional powers and so forth. It also purports to unearth views suggesting alternative ways to reinforce democratic political culture, to ensure inter-communal as well as international reconciliation in the Western Balkans and to make further regional integration plausible.