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ROAD TO NOWHERE IN
MONTENEGRO
Daniel Serwer
June 18, 2023
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Miodrag Vlahović, former Montengrin Minister
of Foreign Affairs and former ambassador to US, is now president
of the Montengrin Helsinki Committee. He writes: Early
parliamentary elections in Montenegro attracted the lowest
turnout ever (56%). They have not brought major...
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HERE’S WHAT TO DO
ABOUT US BALKANS
POLICY
Daniel Serwer
June 11, 2023
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Here we have an American ambassador to one
country casting aspersions on the Prime Minister of a
neighboring country. That alone makes me recoil. It is not only
unprofessional. It also makes the job of his colleague in
Pristina
harder. The last time American...
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SOMETHING IS STIRRING
IN BELGRADE
Daniel Serwer
June 5, 2023
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Saturday’s fifth mass
protest against Serbia’s President Vucic was the largest so far.
People are “fed up.” Triggered by two mass shootings, the
protests have widened their aim and now focus on getting rid of
Vucic, freeing the media from government control, and ending a
culture of...
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THE BALKANS ARE
COMING APART
Daniel Serwer
April 25, 2023
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I’ve been too committed to book-writing to comment much lately,
but the deteriorating situation in the Balkans prompts this
post. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serb member of the state
presidency, Milorad Dodik, is reiterating his intention to
declare independence. He
nominally seeks incorporation into Serbia. His current...
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AN INTERVIEW WITH
DUBRAVKA UGREŠIĆ
Henry Ace Knight
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One would be hard-
pressed to find a novel
more true to its title than Dubravka Ugrešić’s Fox, published in
English last year by Open Letter Press and translated from the
Croatian by Ellen Elias-
Bursać and David Williams. The eponymous spirit animating the
novel—“the writer’s totem”—is perhaps the only thing it remains
true to. Vulpine...
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RISING HOPES CAN BE
REALIZED OR DASHED
Daniel Serwer
January 24, 2023
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Here is the latest version I’ve seen of the German-
French plan for normalization between Kosovo and Serbia. It is a
step in the right direction, if fully implemented, but with some
dubious additions
and important missing elements. This latest text has a bit more
detail on arrangements for the Serbian community in Kosovo than...
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JANUSZ BUGAJSKI’S
WASHINGTON VIEW:
PREVENTING ANOTHER
BALKAN WAR
Janusz Bugajski
3 January 2023, istraga.ba
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The coming year will be a perilous test for
the
Western Balkans, as the embers of war are again being fanned by
Belgrade and Moscow. Western governments confront a stark choice
– whether to allow ambitious Serbian politicians and their
Kremlin patrons to push the region into...
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THE GLOBAL
ZEITENWENDE
By Olaf Scholz
December 5, 2022
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The world is facing a Zeitenwende: an epochal
tectonic shift. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has
put an end to an era. New powers have emerged or reemerged,
including an economically strong and politically assertive
China. In this new multipolar world, different countries and
models of government...
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH US
POLICY IN THE BALKANS?
Daniel Serwer
November 17, 2022
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Washington is sending strange signals in the
Balkans. It has supported
a decision by the
international community High Representative in Bosnia and
Herzegovina instituting a post-election change in the way votes
determine outcomes. This favors ethnonationalist political
parties aligned with Moscow. The...
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SERB WORLD
Sonja Biserko
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After the attempt to recentralize Yugoslavia failed, Serbia's
elites switched to the concept of uniting all Serbs and Serbian
ethnic territories. The rearrangement of borders, particularly
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, could not be carried out through
voluntary resettlement. For this reason, drastic measures
of
intimidation, expulsion...
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WHY THIN GRUEL IS
STILL PROGRESS
Daniel Serwer
August 28, 2022
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The Balkans world is breathing easier today,
after Belgrade and Pristina reached agreement to accept each
other’s identity documents. Heretofore, Belgrade has been
issuing its own identity documents to Kosovars crossing into
Serbia, based on Pristina’s documents. That was done to avoid
implied recognition of Kosovo’s...
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THE TWISTED LOGIC OF
EURASIANISM
Aaron Rhodes
July 28, 2022, Law & Liberty
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Russia’s June 27 missile attack on a shopping
center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine resulted in 20 civilian deaths,
but it appears Russian forces anticipated many more. The 1000
kilogram high-explosive ordinance hit a facility with about 1000
people inside. The attack was consistent with Russia’s strategy
of creating terror among Ukraine’s...
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STAGNATION IS NOT THE
WORST OR THE BEST
Daniel Serwer
June 3, 2022
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The Balkans region is stagnating. Talks for
normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina have
stalled. Belgrade, after promising changes in its policy on
Ukraine, is still siding with Russia. Electoral reform in Bosnia
and Herzegovina is a dead letter. Montenegro has a new caretaker
government...
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RADA IVEKOVIĆ ON
NATIONALISM AND
SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATIONS
May 19, 2022,
By illiberalism.org
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Rada, you have been an acute observer of our
societies’ transformations for decades. I would like to begin
our discussion by looking at Russia’s war against Ukraine. How
does the paradox of Russian attempts at (or claims to be
engaging in)
de-Nazification in Ukraine square with its...
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MAYBE SMALLER IS
BETTER, FOR NOW
Daniel Serwer
May 10, 2022
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I’ve been getting questions lately about the EU-
sponsored dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade. Will it
restart in earnest? Is it just moribund or stone cold dead?
Certainly it has been unproductive. We are approaching the 10th
year since the Brussels
“political” agreement of 2013. A decade of stasis in the Balkans...
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THE SENATOR NEEDS
TO GO DEEPER
Daniel Serwer
April 29, 2022
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Senator Murphy of Connecticut is just back
from a quick trip to the still troubled parts of the Balkans
(Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Pristina). He has written a literate
and interesting account of the trip. Would that all Codels could
do likewise. The Bosnia mistake. That said,
I think he makes serious mistakes. Jasmin Mujatovic has pointed...
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‘SELF-CENSORSHIP
LEADS TO IMPOTENCE’
Translation by
Meghan Vicks
April 11, 2022, Meduza
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On April 1, a Moscow court debated the case of four editors from
the student magazine Doxa on trial for charges of inciting
minors
to take part in protests. The grounds for the criminal
prosecution of Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Natalia...
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THE NICE THING ABOUT
WINNING ELECTIONS
Daniel Serwer
April 4, 2022
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I can do no better than the OSCE in
evaluating
Serbia’s presidential and parliamentary elections. They were
conducted on an “uneven playing field” that favored the
incumbent President and
parliamentary majority. Media coverage and government resources
favored them...
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BLATANT FALSEHOODS
PARADING AS DIPLOMACY
Daniel Serwer
March 9, 2022
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Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland
tweeted today: Pleased to speak with Serbian President @avucic
to thank Serbia for its support for Ukraine, ongoing efforts to
address the humanitarian crisis,
and commitment to
regional stability. We welcome Serbia’s good relations with...
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RUSSIA’S DUAL
CHALLENGE:
AGGRESSION AND STATE
RUPTURE
Janusz Bugajski
March 8, 2022,
The National Interest
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Moscow presents a dual challenge for the
West: its neo-imperial ambitions, as evident in the full-scale
invasion of Ukraine, and the looming prospect of Russia’s state
rupture. While much has been written about...
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WAR AND HATE:
THE LESSON OF UKRAINE
Vesna Pusić
3 March 2022
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In the first week of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, the
scariest moments were two of Putin’s speeches: one
on Monday, February 21 and the other, as he was beginning the
war, on February 24. There was the usual...
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STOP THE AGGRESSION
OF THE RUSSIAN
FEDERATION ON UKRAINE
1 March 2021
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The organisations gathered around the Three
Freedoms Platform fiercely condemn the aggression of the Russian
Federation on Ukraine and warn that a blatant violation of
international law norms is
at hand. We call upon the international stakeholders and...
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GOOD ON RECOGNITION
BUT OVERSOLD
ON
STRATEGIC IMPACT
Daniel Serwer
January 19, 2022
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My colleague at SAIS and its Foreign Policy
Institute, Ed Joseph, has organized an unusual group to
strategize about how to
deal with growing instability in the Balkans. Regional
stagnation due to EU hesistancy as well as Russian and...
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WANT TO MAKE AN
IMPRESSION? SEND
THE AIRBORNE
Daniel Serwer
January 3, 2022
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Last month’s threat by Serb political boss Milorad Dodik is
fading into the holiday mist. No one who watches Bosnian poitics
should relax. He has made it clear his goal is de facto
secession of Republika Srpska. This regional entity’s authority
extends to 49% of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territory. Dodik is...
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POLITICAL CRISIS IN
MONTENEGRO:
BLACKMAILING BY THE
DEMOCRATIC FRONT
Dr. Srdja Pavlovic
Podgorica, October 16, 2021.
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A few days ago, the Democratic Front (DF) had issued the most
significant threat to date to their partners in the ruling
coalition in Montenegro. One of its leaders, who has been
recognized as the most ardent Russophile, Milan Knezevic, called
on his ruling...
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EU INDECISION
‘JEOPARDISING’ ITS
POSITION IN BALKANS -
VON DER LEYEN
By Jessica Parker
October 6, 2021, BBC News
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The EU is like playing in the Champions
League, one official in Brussels said recently. Not, they
claimed pointedly, a more minor domestic competition. The
message being that it isn't easy to win membership. For years
Western Balkans states have tried to climb the accession ladder
into the EU...
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NO ONE SHOULD BE
FOOLED: SERBIA IS
LOST FOR NOW
Daniel Serwer
October 6, 2021
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Colleagues I know and respect think that
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic aims a) to get neighboring
countries to treat their Serb populations correctly, and
b) thereby avoid any mass migration of Serbs, as occurred in the
1990s when they left Croatia and Kosovo. I beg to differ. I see
no evidence of these two claims and lots...
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IS RUSSIA PLANNING
A NEW BALKAN WAR?
by Janusz Bugajski
October 6, 2021,
Washington Examiner
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Sensing weakness in the Biden administration,
the Kremlin may be preparing
to ignite new conflicts in the western Balkans. The
recent border dispute between Kosovo and
Serbia over the recognition of car license plates looks like a
test run for more serious confrontations. Russian...
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THE BALKANS THREAT:
VUČIĆ AND HIS
AUTHORITARIAN REGIME
Srđan Darmanović
14 September 2021, CEDEM
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The forceful inauguration of the Metropolitan of the Serbian
Orthodox Church in the Cetinje Monastery once again has,
alongside prior regional incidents and indicators, shown that
there will be no political stability
in the Western Balkans,
and perhaps no lasting peace, as long as the regime of...
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TIME FOR EU AND
NATO TO GET REAL
WITH SERBIA
Daniel Serwer
July 20, 2021
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To his credit, Serbia’s President Vucic is
acknowledging the
“Serbian world” concept as his own. Serbia’s borders are
inviolable he says, and “we don’t care about other people’s
borders.” Vucic wants Serbs to be united in a single political
space and state, without violence. Fat chance. Serbia has eight
immediate...
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THE “SERBIAN WORLD”*
IS A PERIL TO
NON-SERBS
AND REGIONAL SECURITY
Daniel Serwer
July 19, 2021
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Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s Interior Minister,
has become chief spokesman for an idea he attributes to
President Vucic: the “Serbian world.”* This is a warmed up
version of the Greater Serbia Slobodan Milosevic failed to
create because he lost four wars
in the 1990s. Vulin is clear that what he intends is military...
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WHAT TO EXPECT FROM
RENEWAL OF THE
KOSOVO/SERBIA
DIALOGUE
Daniel Serwer
July 16, 2021
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Alma Baxhaku of Klan Kosova asked some
questions today; I answered: Q: The dialogue between Kosovo and
Serbia is resuming. The
new Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has said that this
process is not a continuation of what it
was until now. Do you think that Kosovo...
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A GLOBAL US CAN’T
AVOID CONFRONTING
CHINA AND RUSSIA
David L. Phillips
July 8, 2021, Balkan Insight
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The US is on a collision course with China and Russia over both
ideology and influence. As a liberal democracy, the US system of
government is
antithetical to the authoritarian model of government in China
and Russia, both egregious violators of...
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BALKAN STABILITY
REQUIRES SERBIA-
KOSOVO AGREEMENT
by Janusz Bugajski
June 21, 2021
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Negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, which
restarted in Brussels on Tuesday under the
auspices of the European Union, hold the key for stability in
the Western Balkans. Without an agreement on mutual recognition
as independent states, the...
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PETITION
2 June 2021
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We, the undersigned, utterly condemn the new
ruling coalition's brutal pressure on the critical media and
journalists in Montenegro. As expected, the pressure had
escalated this week: Darko Šuković, the editor of Antena M, as
well as the columnist of that website Dragan Bursać, had
received death threats. The threats cause even more concerns...
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THE 'NON-PAPER'
CARVING UP BALKANS
AND UNDERMINING
EUROPE
By Vesna Pusić and
Sonja Biserko
4 May 2021, EU Observer
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There is a spectre haunting Europe, the spectre of partition, as
authoritarian populists in the region and in the European Union
itself have sought to expand the realm of the possible to
include a final regional carve-up that...
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THE ONE-SIDED WAR OF
DREADFUL
NON-PAPERS
CONTINUES, MINE NEXT!
Daniel Serwer
April 29, 2021
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Koha Ditore has published
a non-paper on the
EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The origins
of the paper have not been verified, though it is widely
referred to as French and German. They deny it originates with
official Paris and Berlin. I’m...
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BACK TO THE FUTURE IN
THE WESTERN BALKANS
Daniel Serwer
April 27, 2021
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The State Department issued this statement
yesterday: The United States is committed to supporting the
countries of the Western Balkans on their path to European
integration and
membership in key European and Euro-Atlantic institutions. We
are working with Western Balkan countries and...
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MONTENEGRO IS UNDER
ATTACK
AND NEEDS
AMERICAN HELP
Daniel Serwer
April 23, 2021
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The last time Montenegro appeared in the US press President
Donald Trump was shoving its Prime Minister out of his way
during the Summit at which the former Yugoslav
republic joined NATO in 2017. Now Montenegro’s government, which
came to power last September, is shoving aside NATO in
favor of improved relations with Serbia...
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A BRONX CHEER FOR
A DUMB IDEA
Daniel Serwer
April 16, 2021
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COVID-19 isn’t the only epidemic in the
Balkans. There is an even more deadly one: proposals to move
borders. There is no vaccine to prevent their spread. Below is a
good pictorial summary, courtesy of Rada Trajkovic, who tweets:
Balkans corrupt, criminalised, illiberal
leaders have been so emboldened by their unfettered domestic
power grabs that they...
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KURT BASSUENER
14 April 2021
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What do you think about
this non-paper document that is- as was reported Slovenian PM
Mr. Janša has send to the President
of EU Council Mr. Michel? KB: Such a Janša “non-
paper” was reported received by President Michel’s office,
before they retracted the confirmation… It’s hard to know what
to believe. But given Janša’s history of provocation (recall his
congratula...
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A GOOD MOVE, BUT
MORE IS NEEDED
Daniel Serwer
April 1, 2021
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My reaction to this letter from the Secretary of State to the
tripartite presidency
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is mixed. It is good that it
presses hard on the need for constitutional as well as other
reforms. It has been apparent for the better part of two decades
that
BiH needs profound changes in how power is gained and
distributed in order to make...
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MONTENEGRO IS
CENTER
STAGE IN
BALKAN CONFLICT
by Janusz Bugajski
March 10, 2021
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The struggle between Western powers and
Russia over the Balkan Peninsula is heating up, with a predatory
China seeking to benefit from the turmoil. The new government in
Montenegro, established in December 2020, was viewed in Western
capitals as a fresh start to...
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JANUSZ BUGAJSKI’S
WASHINGTON
VIEW:
BALKANS ARE BOILING
AGAIN
Janusz Bugajski
1 March 2021, istraga.ba
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The Balkan motto might
well be “another year, another crisis.” While the political
impasse in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and
the recognition dispute between Serbia and
Kosova both need urgent resolution, the stability and
independence of Montenegro is also under increasing...
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CLERO-NAZI ANSCHLUSS
Aleksandar Sekulović
27 January 2021
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With establishment of Serbian clerical
government and with triumphal auto-litanies (church processions
held
by forming line of automobiles due to the epidemiological
situation caused by COVID19) waving Serbian flags and with
outcries “This is Serbia”, grand Serbian clerical-Nazism won an
important...
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WILL AMERICA
SURVIVE REBELLION?
Janusz Bugajski
January 15, 2021, The Hill
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Although President-elect Joe Biden is proclaiming unity as his
overarching goal, the storming of Congress on Jan. 6 may be the
harbinger of an accelerating slide toward political disunion and
potential state fracture. In the most optimistic
scenario, the
failed insurrection brought America back...
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SERBIA NEEDS TO GET
ON THE RIGHT SIDE
OF
HISTORY
Daniel Serwer
January 6, 2021
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Saša Janković, runner-up at the latest
Presidential elections in the Republic of Serbia (2017), writes
in Danas: Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has
made an unnecessary and inappropriate personal gamble with
national interests, participating in a campaign of one candidate
in the US...
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REPUBLIKA SRPSKA AS A
SPOILS OF WAR
THAT
SERBIA WILL NOT GIVE UP
Sonja Biserko
30 December 2020
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The 25th anniversary of the Dayton Accords is
a reason for one more look at the “unfinished job”, in the
Balkans. The Yugoslav crisis was not the crisis of the periphery
but rather an announcement of trends that are now visible in the
whole world. That is why it
is important to learn
lessons for...
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HUNGARY NO LONGER A
DEMOCRACY: REPORT
By Laurenz Gehrke
May 6, 2020, Politico
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Hungary is no longer a democracy, Poland is about to go down the
same path, democracy in the Balkans
is eroding because of Chinese and Russian influence, and the EU
is doing nothing to stop it all, according to the NGO Freedom
House’s latest Nations in...
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MY BALKANS
RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR
PRESIDENT BIDEN
Daniel Serwer
December 8, 2020
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Here is my testimony to the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs from this morning: Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
not only for this opportunity to testify once again but also for
your decades of commitment to Europe whole and free. But the job
is not yet finished. Problems...
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DAYTON BOSNIA IS 25,
TIME TO ACT LIKE AN
ADULT
Daniel Serwer
December 3, 2020
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The Foreign Service
Journal earlier this week published my thoughts on how to reform
the Dayton peace agreement under which Bosnia and Herzegovina is
currently governed, 25 years after the war. I would like to see
an end to the governance structures...
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THE DAYTON ACCORDS
AT 25
Daniel Serwer
December 3, 2020
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Twenty-five years ago, the United States brought forth on the
European continent
a new state dedicated to
the proposition that citizens are not equal as individuals but
rather endowed with group rights. Those three groups (Bosniaks,
Serbs and Croats), denominated as “constituent...
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HOW BIDEN CAN HELP
REVIVE EASTERN EUROPE
By Janusz Bugajski
19 November 2020, The Hill
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President-elect Joe Biden
is committed to restoring trans-Atlantic relations because a
more united alliance can better handle a plethora of global
problems. One of his biggest challenges will be
in Eastern Europe, a region that is vital for the continent’s...
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THIS IS NOT ABOUT
ORGAN TRAFFICKING
Daniel Serwer
November 10, 2020
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I’ve now had a chance to at least skim the
charges against Hashim Thaci,
Kadri Veseli, and other KLA leaders indicted by the Specialist
Chambers in
The Hague. While triggered by the Marty report, the Specialist
Chambers have adopted an expansive definition of the...
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STILL POLARIZATION,
THIS TIME IN SUPPORT OF
BOSNIA
Daniel Serwer
October 20, 2020
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This may at first reading by the uninitiated
sound a bit less polarized than the statement on Kosovo and
Albania, but that it is not how it will be read in the Balkans.
Some Serbs and Croats will resent his mention of genocide, his
advocacy on...
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POLARIZATION AT HOME,
POLARIZATION ABROAD
Daniel Serwer
October 20, 2020
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The statement speaks for itself, loud and
clear. Many friends in Belgrade won’t like it, because they have
enjoyed the Trump Administration’s tilt in their direction. Many
Albanians in both Kosovo and Albania will be delighted, even
though it adds little or nothing to what...
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"THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
OPENED
THE WAY FOR
TRUMP"
By Susanne Beyer
18 September 2020,
Spiegel
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His tone is perpetually friendly and he has
the charisma of a reserved gentleman. At the same time, he has
that presence that is typical of American stars, regardless
whether they’re in Hollywood,
politics or at a university. His arguments...
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SERBIA’S TURN EAST
By David L. Phillips
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The indicators are multiple: A financial crackdown on civil
society and media organizations, not including the nationalist
ones;
Control over conventional print and electronic media as well as
abusive use of social media; Purchase of major military
equipment from Moscow and China; Signature of a free trade
agreement...
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MACEDONIA IS A GOOD
STORY
Daniel Serwer
July 16, 2020
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The New York Times is bemoaning a muddy
election outcome in North Macedonia. I beg to differ. The
outcome is no muddier than previous Macedonian elections, which
have consistently left the
Albanian political parties as the dealmakers and breakers. That...
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BE PREPARED
Daniel Serwer
July 14, 2020
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After the calamitous failure of the Trump
Administration’s attempt to take over the economic aspects of
dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, the European Union
reasserted its primacy in a flurry of meetings last week
between Serbian President Vucic and...
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IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
July 13, 2020
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Condemning the genocide and other crimes
against
the Bosniak community perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces at
Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995. Whereas,
beginning in April 1992, aggression and ethnic cleansing
perpetrated by...
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MISSING PERSONS IN
KOSOVO
By David L. Phillips
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Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica
Genocide. From Bosnia, we know that identifying victims is
critical to societal healing. An accounting of missing persons
from the Kosovo war should be a part of negotiations to...
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TWO VOICES ON KOSOVO
Paolo Bergamaschi
July 8, 2020
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The Belgrade-Prishtina dialogue, aimed at
reaching the normalisation of relations between Serbia and
Kosovo, was launched in 2011 with the mediation
of the European Union. Over the years, the negotiations were
marred
by ups and...
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NEXT WEEKEND THE
BALKANS COME TO DC
Daniel Serwer
June 23, 2020
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Sunday’s Serbian parliamentary election
delivered a resounding landslide to President Aleksandar Vucic,
as the main opposition parties decided to boycott. They rightly
claimed conditions
for free and...
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THERE IS MORE THAN
ONE BAD IDEA
Daniel Serwer
June 19, 2020
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The Trump Administration
is bringing Kosovo and Serbia Presidents Thaci
and Vucic to Washington June 27, in an effort to hammer out some
sort of agreement the American President can boast about at a
Rose...
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BIDENING THEIR TIME
Daniel Serwer
June 15, 2020
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Ric Grenell’s today announced Belgrade /
Pristina talks in
Washington June 27: Great news! I have
received the commitment from the governments of Kosovo
and
Serbia to temporarily pause the derecognition campaign...
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ZAGREB DECLARATION
By EWB
6 May 2020
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We, the leaders of the European Union (EU)
and its Member States, in consultation with Western Balkans
leaders, and in the presence of regional and international
stakeholders, today reiterate our strong solidarity with our
partners in the context of the coronavirus...
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BALKAN GRIT
Janusz Bugajski
4 May 2020
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In poor regions like the Balkans, the
economic impact of the pandemic will be far-reaching and acutely
test social resilience. However, it will also provide
opportunities for self-
reliance and
resourcefulness that could benefit Europe more widely. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF)...
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SERBIA SHOULD ALIGN
Daniel Serwer
May 2, 2020
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A group of people
described to me as “prominent individuals from all walks of life
in Serbia” have issued an appeal in the runup to the (remote)
EU/Western Balkans Summit meeting on Wednesday. The tone is
muted, but the overall message is clear: democracy is...
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A REALLY BAD DEAL
Daniel Serwer
April 20, 2020
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Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Kurti in a Zoom press conference
this morning confirmed a lot of suspicions: The United States,
in particular Special Envoy and Director of National
Intelligence Richard Grenell, has played an important role in
unseating Kurti, who has been defeated in a confidence...
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A LETTER OF
ENCOURAGEMENT
Suada Kapic
April 3, 2020
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Now, in April 2020, (while the global attack
of coronavirus is happening), I am sitting at Grbavica, in
Sarajevo, at the same location as I used to sit
then - in 1992 (when the siege of Sarajevo started). Since I
have survived the four-year-long siege, my friends think...
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WASHINGTON IS STOKING
A NEW BALKAN CRISIS
Janusz Bugajski
1 April 2020, The Hill
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While the coronavirus pandemic preoccupies
Washington, the Trump administration is inadvertantly stoking a
new conflict in the Balkans. In a hastened effort to forge a
settlement between Serbia and Kosovo that would enable U.S.
forces to leave the region, the White House could unravel...
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A PLAGUE ON ALL THEIR
HOUSES
Janusz Bugajski
30 March 2020
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The coronavirus spares nobody, but poorer regions with
inadequate healthcare systems and deficient emergency planning
will be most affected in the long term. That makes the Balkans
look particularly vulnerable. Though by the end of March only
6,000 infections...
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BOTTOM OF THE BARREL
Daniel Serwer
February 19, 2020
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Richard Grenell, Ambassador to Germany and
impresario of the
recent Belgrade/Pristina agreements that are expected to open
air and train service between the two cities, is pulling up
stakes. He is headed back to Washington to be
Director of National Intelligence...
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DISSECTING PUTINIST
AGITPROP
Janusz Bugajski
5 February 2020
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Moscow has a long history of disseminating
disinformation to soften up its targets and achieve specific
political goals. In Soviet times such initiatives were often
included under the rubric of “agitprop” – agitation and
propaganda. Agitprop campaigns were not only...
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RUSSIA'S SPY WAR IN
THE BALKANS
By Dimitar Bechev
3 February 2020, Al Jazeera
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When in March 2018 news broke that former Russian double agent
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia may have been poisoned
with a nerve agent called
Novichok by spies working for Russia's GRU,
Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev became alarmed. Three...
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THE BALKAN GREAT
GAME
Janusz Bugajski
28 January, 2020
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The Great Game, a prolonged 19th century
confrontation between the British and Russian
empires in Central Asia, is often invoked as a prime example of
the struggle for influence between major powers. But another
Great Game was...
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IS BOSNIA A TIME BOMB?
Janusz Bugajski
6 January, 2020
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French President Emmanuel Macron has
described Bosnia-Herzegovina as a "ticking time-bomb" and a
grave concern for Europe
because of jihadists returning from Syria. He is tapping into
the
anti-Bosniak stereotypes propounded by former Serbian leader...
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HANDKE’S NOBEL PRIZE:
LINK IN A CHAIN OF
GENOCIDE DENIAL
Edina Becirevic
December 11, 2019,
Balkan Transitional Justice
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On Tuesday, Austrian
author Peter Handke officially received the
Nobel Prize for literature. Any hope for the unexpected, for the
prize to be revoked, did not materialise. I can list abundant...
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BORKA PAVIĆEVIĆ
(1947-2019):
A BIOGRAPHY SKETCH
By Latinka Perović
July-August, 2019.
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In the autumn of 2018, the book “Living One’s
Ideals: Sonja Biserko: A Portrait Sketch” – Sonja’s friends and
associates have compiled to mark her 70th anniversary - was
launched in the Center...
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YES, THE BALKANS CAN
ACCEDE
Daniel Serwer
November 18, 2019
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This French non-paper is roiling the Balkans:
while promising eventual accession for all the countries of the
region, it proposes tightening up on conditionality and allowing
for reversibility. That is good, not bad...
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BULGARIA’S SECRET
EMPIRE
Tomasz Kamusella,
University of St Andrews
October 2019
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The year 2019 promised to be a long-awaited
annus mirabilis in the Balkans. After the old nationalist guards
were replaced...
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ONE MORE FAILURE
Daniel Serwer
October 5, 2019
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I’d like to revise my judgment yesterday that the appointment of
Richard Grenell as Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and
Kosovo Peace Negotiations is bizarre. It is likely worse than
that, possibly even tragic. I hasten to add that I have not
talked with the White House about it. There is no point: they
lie...
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A WAKE-UP CALL FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
James A. Goldston
New York, 15 August 2019,
Project Syndicate
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The world is going to pot, and the
human-rights movement is largely to blame. That bizarre
critique, popular with dictators and criminals, has taken hold
even among some rights supporters who are
stunned by the assault on liberal values that defines our age.
Having proven unable to halt...
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OUTCRY AS PRESCHOOL
SETS UP IN FORMER
NAZI
CONCENTRATION CAMP
14 August 2019, The Guardian
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The greying, box-like building that houses
the Savsko Obdanište kindergarten has had many uses over the
years. At one point it was a restaurant; when you step through
the front doors you find yourself surrounded by musty,
brown 1970s-style dining furniture. Further inside, a door leads
into...
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MY MOTHER AND THE
FAILED EXPERIMENT OF
YUGOSLAVIA
By Aleksandar Hemon
June 5, 2019, newyorker.com
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It has become fashionable to hate the late Yugoslavia, or to
diagnose it retroactively as a kind of Frankenstein assemblage
of mismatched parts
whose dissolution was
thus inescapable and inevitably...
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PUTIN'S POWER VERTIGO
Janusz Bugajski
22 May, 2019
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With economic conditions deteriorating and
social turmoil escalating in
various regions of Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s
self-proclaimed “power vertical” is looking increasingly like a
“power vertigo.” Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, all
Russian governments have failed to modernize the state, whether...
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UNPREDICTABLE EU
ELECTIONS
Janusz Bugajski
9 May, 2019
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The upcoming European Union parliamentary
elections will help indicate
in which direction the Union is heading. No one can be certain
whether they will reinforce anti-EU populism, revive traditional
pro-EU parties, or simply exacerbate political
volatility...
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CHINA'S EURASIAN
AMBITIONS
Janusz Bugajski
30 April, 2019
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Although attention is riveted on Russia as the main adversary of
the West, China is developing into a more serious long-term
threat. Russia is a revisionist aggressor trying to subvert the
transatlantic world but its capabilities
will steadily...
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WHAT SERBIA CAN GET
Daniel Serwer
April 26, 2019
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Berlin will be hosting
Balkan leaders Monday. This summit will be EU
High Representative Mogherini’s last chance before she leaves
office to strike a deal on “normalization” of relations between
Serbia and Kosovo. The Germans have let it be known...
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THE PROFOUND LESSON
OF THE NOTRE DAME FIRE
By Ullrich Fichtner
April 19, 2019, Spiegel
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When the Stari Most, the 16th century bridge
in Mostar, fell victim to the Bosnian War, the author Slavenka
Drakulic wrote a short but striking essay for the magazine New
Republic. It was December 1993, and Drakulic described in...
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NATO’S BLACK SEA
HORIZONS
Janusz Bugajski
12 March 2019
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While NATO aims to provide permanent security
to its members and help other states defend their independence,
for Moscow the Black Sea is a launch pad to dominate its former
satellites and project its military power...
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WHY THE RUSH?
Daniel Serwer
March 6, 2019
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I spoke this morning via Skype to a conference in Pristina on
the Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue: Nomalization or an Aggravated Status
Quo. These were my speaking notes, which I did not follow
religiously: 1. Thank you all for accommodating me by Skype.
I’ll miss...
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MOSCOW’S BALKAN
PARTITION STRATEGY
Janusz Bugajski
9 January 2019
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For Washington, a potential territorial
exchange
between Serbia and
Kosova could normalize relations between the two states and help
stabilize
the wider region. For Moscow, the prospect of land swaps can add
a new dimension to...
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THE BROMANCE ISN’T
GOING WELL
Daniel Serwer
February 19, 2019
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Agon Maliqi raises three legitimate issues in
response to my post welcoming Kosovo’s negotiating platform:
1) Domestic costs of prolonging this indefinitely not taken into
account; 2) Can we rely on EU accession as...
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BRAVO, BUT KOSOVO
CAN WAIT
Daniel Serwer
February 17, 2019
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On the eve of today’s 11th anniversary of its
independence, Kosovo has published its “Platform for Dialogue on
a Final, Comprehensive and
Legally Binding Agreement on Normalization of Relations Between
the Republic of...
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STRENGTHENING
FRIENDSHIP
22 January 2019
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The Treaty of Aachen between Germany and
France will help strengthen the friendship that exists between
the two countries. In future they will move
even closer together to address the challenges of the 21st
century. The invited guests who will attend the official signing...
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BREXIT IMPACT ON
EUROPE’S EAST
Janusz Bugajski
9 January 2019
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Britain’s exit from the European Union on 29
March will have far-reaching political, economic, and security
reverberations in Central-East Europe (CEE). Paradoxically,
Romania will hold the EU presidency as the UK departs...
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MANAGING RUSSIA'S
DISSOLUTION
Janusz Bugajski
9 January 2019, The Hill
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Russia’s ongoing attacks
on Ukraine and its
persistent subversion of Western states demonstrates that
Washington and Brussels have failed to restrain Moscow’s...
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OPENING GAMBIT
Daniel Serwer
December 20, 2018
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Kosovo Prime Minister Haradinaj has circulated a 30-page draft
comprehensive agreement between his own Republic and Serbia. It
contains a lot of things I might like, including extensive
arrangements for cross-
border...
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THE RIGHT MEDICINE
Daniel Serwer
December 5, 2018
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Serbia is threatening to intervene in Kosovo
if its parliament votes to create an army. NATO is backing
Belgrade. This is
ridiculous. The Alliance should be telling
Belgrade
to stuff it. NATO-led forces in Kosovo should be put on
alert to...
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European Parliament
2018 REPORT ON SERBIA
29 November 2018
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The European Parliament, having regard to the
Presidency conclusions of the Thessaloniki European Council
meeting of 19-20 June 2003, having regard to the Sofia
declaration of the EU-Western Balkans summit of 17 May 2018...
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RUSSIA EXPLOITS SERBIA
Janusz Bugajski
20 November 2018
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Contrary to conventional assumptions, Serbia
and Russia do not have a close alliance but an asymmetric
coupling in which the Kremlin exploits its dominance. When
Moscow needs Serbia to fulfill
certain international tasks
to Russia’s...
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Interview: Sonja Biserko
NO ONE CAN FEEL
SAFE HERE
Filip Švarm
October 4, 2018, Vreme
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"It’s only logical that Sonja Biserko, Sava Janjić and Rada
Trajković have taken the same side. There is no difference
between them; but people...
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UGH
Daniel Serwer
October 1, 2018
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The referendum on Macedonia’s agreement with
Greece, which would enable it to join NATO next year and the EU
when it qualifies, passed with more than 90% voting yes but
failed to reach the 50% threshold of...
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RUSSIA’S DEFEATS
Janusz Bugajski
19 September 2018
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An integral part of Russia’s state propaganda
is to create an aura of
invincibility and inevitability in its foreign policy. This is
reminiscent of claims about the irresistible success of world
communism in a previous era...
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RWLSEE DECLARATION
AGAINST BORDER
CHANGE
15 September 2018
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Concerned with recent regional development, which directly
endanger peace processes and security not only of the region but
also Europe itself. Concerned with destabilizing...
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SLAYING THE PARTITION
VAMPIRE
Daniel Serwer
September 12, 2018
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Serbian President Vucic’s speech in northern
Kosovo on Sunday has attracted a lot of attention because of
this nauseating line: Miloševic was a great Serbian leader; his
intentions were...
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RUSSIA’S PRIMARY
TARGETS
Janusz Bugajski
7 September 2018
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External assertiveness
often serves as an
effective diversionary maneuver to dampen domestic turmoil
by
acting on the deception that Russia is under threat. Moscow’s
tools of aggression...
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OPEN LETTER TO
MS. MOGHERINI
Carl Bildt, Paddy
Ashdown and Christian
Schwarz-Schilling
August 29, 2018
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An Open Letter to Federica Mogherini and the
Foreign Ministers of EU Member States on the Correction of
Borders between Serbia and Kosovo. As former
High Representatives for Bosnia and Herzegovina, we are deeply
concerned by announcements made recently by...
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DENIAL CHANGES
NOTHING AND
EVERYTHING
Daniel Serwer
August 16, 2018
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Republika Srpska
President Dodik Tuesday got
the entity’s Assembly to revoke a 2004 report that confirmed its
army’s
murder of about 8000 mostly men and boys near Srebrenica
in 1995. The Assembly action changes nothing. The murders
occurred, most of the remains have...
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OPEN LETTER TO
FEDERICA MOGHERINI
Civil society organizations
from Serbia and Kosovo
against the division of
Kosovo
15 August 2018
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Dear Ms Mogherini, Civil society
organizations from Serbia and Kosovo are urging you to make an
unambiguous statement against the division of Kosovo or the
exchange of territories between Kosovo and Serbia on...
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PERILS OF BALKAN
PARTITION
Janusz Bugajski
15 August 2018
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After several provocative statements by
Serbian and Kosovar politicians and in the midst of relative
silence from Washington and Brussels, suppositions are growing
that a territorial exchange is being planned between Belgrade
and Prishtina. Kosova’s President Hashim Thaci
has asserted that
the Belgrade...
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A BAD IDEA WHOSE TIME
SHOULD NOT COME
Daniel Serwer
August 2, 2018
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Kosovo President Thaci
has made it clear he
intends to discuss
changing Kosovo’s borders with Serbian President Vucic. He
denies this
means ethnic partition of Kosovo and calls it a correction of
the border, a euphemism intended to mean an exchange of
territory: If the...
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NO THANKS
Daniel Serwer
July 23, 2018
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I have been trying to avoid wasting time
commenting on the Center for Euro-
Atlantic Studies call for partition of Kosovo in its ill-
considered report ironically entitled “West Side Story.” But the
partition idea never seems to die. Last week’s “fake news,
wishful
thinking” is the latest example of the Belgrade press spinning...
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THE TRANSCRIPT OF
OBAMA S SPEECH
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY
By The New York Times
July 17, 2018
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To Mama Graça Machel, members of the Mandela
family, the Machel family, to President Ramaphosa who you can
see is inspiring
new hope in this great country, professor, doctor, distinguished
guests, to Mama Sisulu and the
Sisulu family, to the...
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AVOIDING FAKE DEALS
WITH MOSCOW
Janusz Bugajski
3 July 2018
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In the usual scenario, an incoming U.S.
President believes that he can be more successful than his
predecessor in
establishing a partnership with Russia’s leader. Trust is
declared, promises are made, deals are struck,
and Moscow’s previous
acts of aggression against its neighbors...
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BALKAN UPS AND DOWNS
Janusz Bugajski
27 June 2018
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Hence, news of the recent breakthrough after
two decades of negotiations between Macedonia and Greece has to
be treated with caution at a time when renewed conflict in
Bosnia-
Herzegovina also lurks on the horizon. Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev finally
signed
an agreement...
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THE MONTENEGRIN
PARADOX
By Darko Suković
19 June 2018, Antena M
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During a recent visit to Brussels by recently
elected Montenegrin President Milo Djukanović, European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker complimented the reform
efforts of the Montenegrin government and acknowledged
Montenegro...
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BOSNIA’S TEAPOT
TEMPEST
Daniel Serwer
May 2, 2018
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In December 2016, the Constitutional Court of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) ruled partially in favor of a
complaint lodged by former Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska
demokratska zajednica, HDZ) politician Božo Ljubić. At issue was
the state election law provision dictating that...
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NATO’S UNSTABLE
CENTRAL FLANK
Janusz Bugajski
13 March 2018
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In a unique territorial configuration, the
NATO alliance surrounds an area in Europe that may become
increasingly unstable. NATO envelops four of the states that
emerged from the former Yugoslavia
—Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosova, Macedonia, and Serbia—but...
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SO FAR, SO GOOD
Daniel Serwer
February 6, 2018
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The European
Commission today announced its new strategy for the Western
Balkans: “A credible enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU
engagement.” That’s good news. The non-EU members of the Western
Balkans are floundering. Autocratic...
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BALKAN SECURITY AND
U.S. STRATEGY
Janusz Bugajski
22 January 2018
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The Balkans are returning onto America’s
radar
screen as threats to
regional stability and European
integrity mount. To prevent a dangerous spiral of escalation,
Washington must pursue a more vigorous strategy to help secure
the remaining states within...
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THIS INTERVIEW IS TOO
LONG
Daniel Serwer
December 28, 2017
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The world is in bad shape
in 2018. The big
issues confronting the United States have to do with North Korea
and Iran but apart from the success against Daesh in Iraq and in
Syria there isn’t a lot of good news for the United States.
There’s a lot of concern I think in...
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WHAT’S WRONG WITH
THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL
REPORT
Daniel Serwer
November 30, 2017
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I naturally agree with large parts of the
Atlantic Council report on “Balkans Forward: A New US Strategy
for the Region,” even if I think the title overblown. It’s more
like a course correction they have recommended, but that
presumably wouldn’t have satisfied...
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THE BEST AVAILABLE,
UNSATISFYING OUTCOME
Daniel Serwer
November 22, 2017
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Ratko Mladic was convicted today in The
Hague. The sentence is life imprisonment for genocide, crimes
against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war
in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s. He will presumably
appeal.
Re-reading...
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Contingency Planning
Memorandum No. 32
THE UNRAVELING OF
THE BALKANS PEACE
AGREEMENTS
November 8, 2017,
Center for
Preventive Action
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The risk of renewed violence and political
instability is growing in the Balkans. The decade of progress in
postconflict reconciliation and
economic recovery after the U.S.-led...
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MOSCOW'S BALKAN
FRONT: THE KOSOVA
OFFENSIVE
Janusz Bugajski
6 November 2017
|
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A groundbreaking report
just released in Prishtina provides important details on how
Moscow seeks to transform Kosova into a failed state. It
demonstrates that the attempted coup in Montenegro in October
2016, reportedly
engineered by...
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TWO CHAIRS
Daniel Serwer
October 24, 2017
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Hoyt Yee, the deputy assistant secretary of
State whose bailiwick includes
the Balkans, said yesterday in Belgrade that Serbia “cannot sit
on two chairs at the same time.” He was referring to Belgrade’s
efforts to both accede to the EU and maintain close relations
with Vladimir Putin’s Russia...
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YOUTH FROM SERBIA AND
ALBANIA VOICED
A NEED
FOR CO-OPERATION
October 10, 2017, HRYF
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A group of 40 young individuals from Serbia
and Albania have come up with a set of recommendations, combined
into a document called Voice of Youth, shaped within three days
of intensive work during
the Human Rights Youth Forum held in August in Tirana, Albania.
The recommenda...
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CATALONIA IS NOT
KOSOVA
Janusz Bugajski
10 October 2017
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Following Catalonia’s referendum on
independence, some politicians have equated Catalonia with
Kosova. Such comparisons are not only politically misleading,
but also stir instability in both the Balkan and Iberian
peninsulas. Kosova gained independence under NATO and EU...
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WHAT TO DO IN THE
BALKANS
Daniel Serwer
October 4, 2017
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I prepared these speaking notes for a
briefing on the Balkans today: 1. The US is responsible for
three peace agreements in the Balkans: Bosnia, Kosovo and
Macedonia, leaving behind a web that has prevented war for more
than 15 years. 2. All the...
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MOSCOW’S STRATEGY
TO CARVE UP EUROPE
Janusz Bugajski
22 September 2017
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Moscow’s strategy toward Europe is
reminiscent of carving a hunted game. It exploits and
exacerbates the vulnerabilities of targeted states, and widens
any lingering disputes between them. The Kremlin has targeted at
least four portions of the continent:
Anglo-Saxon...
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ARE AMERICA AND
RUSSIA INCOMPATIBLE?
Janusz Bugajski
6 September 2017
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Regardless of which administration is in the
White House, U.S.-Russia relations will remain fundamentally
conflictive. Instead of assuming that current disputes are the
result of specific policy decisions that can be rectified, U.S.
officials need to dissect the...
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THE DANGER OF
QUALIFYING DEMOCRACY
Janusz Bugajski
18 August 2017
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The terms “liberal democracy” and “illiberal
democracy,” commonly used by commentators and analysts, retard
our understanding of contemporary politics and assist both the
domestic and international adversaries of democratic systems...
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'DIANA'S LIST' OF
CHILDREN SAVED FROM
DEATH CAMPS REVEALED
Gordana Knezevic
July 22, 2017, RFE/RL
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In any Balkan country the names of war
criminals are well-known. But the names of people who have moved
humanity in a positive direction are often hidden from the
public eye. That is the case with Diana Budisavljejvic, whose
heroics in...
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VUČIĆ@PENCE
Daniel Serwer
July 18, 2017
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I am getting inquiries about Serbian
President Vučić’s meeting yesterday with Vice President Pence.
The White House readout
is short but includes some detail: Vice President Mike Pence met
today with President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić. The leaders...
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BEYOND THE TRAGEDY OF
OTTO WARMBIER
Michael Kirby
Sydney Institute,
Sydney, 21 june 2017
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This week the family of Otto Warmbier
announced, in their polite, understated American way, “It is our
sad duty to report that our son has completed his journey home.
Otto died today at 2pm”. The apparently...
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THE KLA ISN’T THE ONLY
WINNER
Daniel Serwer
June 12, 2017
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A coalition led by three parties that trace
their origins to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) won a
plurality in Kosovo’s parliamentary election yesterday. Running
for the first time together, the winning KLA...
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PREVENTING NEW
BALKAN CONFLICTS
Daniel Serwer
May 17, 2017
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Here are my speaking
notes for the testimony I delivered today at the hearing on “The
Balkans: Threats to Peace and Stability” of the
Subcommittee on Europe, Asia and Emerging Threats of the House...
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NATO’S BALKAN
STRATEGY
Janusz Bugajski
9 May 2017
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Montenegro’s imminent entry into NATO, as its
29th member, provides both momentum and opportunity for the
Alliance. The
Summit in Brussels on May 25 is an important venue to specify
NATO’s...
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OUTSIDE INFLUENCES IN
THE BALKANS
Daniel Serwer
April 26, 2017
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Some colleagues asked
that I talk yesterday about outside influences on the Balkans,
where things have gotten shaky lately, with a risk that the
peace
settlements of the 1990s might unravel. Here are the notes I...
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UPHEAVAL IN THE
BALKANS
Janusz Bugajski
25 April 2017
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Storm clouds are gathering again in the
Western Balkans. If escalating grievances and national disputes
are not resolved, the region could again be engulfed in a spiral
of conflict that degenerates into violence...
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RUSSIA’S NEW
MACEDONIA OFFENSIVE
Janusz Bugajski
10 April 2017
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Moscow has opened a new front in the Balkans
with a concerted effort to inflame Macedonia’s political crisis.
The goal is not only to diminish prospects for Macedonia’s entry
into NATO and the EU, but even more...
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WHAT TO DO WITH
A BIG WIN
Daniel Serwer
April 3, 2017
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Acting Prime Minister Aleksandar
Vucic has won the presidency in Serbia with a convincing margin
over a fragmented opposition in the first round. The question
now is what he will do with...
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BALKAN TROUBLES
Milan Nič
March 31, 2017, BPJ
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After an extended absence, the Western
Balkans finally returned to the European agenda at the March 9
EU summit. Traditionally, the region is discussed
primarily in
terms of its
slow progress toward EU accession...
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IS THE EU OBSOLETE?
Janusz Bugajski
16 March 2017
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The future of the European Union
remains in question. Crucial national elections during 2017 in
Germany, France and Holland will
help determine whether the crisis is existential. In this
context, German Chancellor Angela Merkel...
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BALKAN TEST FOR
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Janusz Bugajski
23 February 2017
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Observers and politicians
in the region
speculated
that Trump may be more amenable to Serbia’s position or more
willing to make deals with Moscow in which Kosova’s
independence...
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SHORTEST ROUTE TO
BALKANS PEACE
Daniel Serwer
February 10, 2017
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Filip Raunic of Croatia’s Telegram asked some
questions about Bosnia
and Herzgovina. I replied: Q: Republika Srpska celebrated its
National Day, despite the fact that Constitution Court marked
it as...
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FRONTLINE
VULNERABILITY
The Strategic Case for
the Western Balkans
Transition Brief No.
4
Janusz Bugajski, Jan 2017
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Two countries entered the EU after a long
process of reform: Slovenia (2004) and Croatia (2013).
Montenegro, Serbia...
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MOSCOW'S BIGGEST
DECEPTION
Janusz Bugajski
11 January 2017,
Photo: Vitaly Nevar/TASS
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Vladimir Putin’s
government thrives
in the world of social media conspiracies and mass
disinformation. In this “information war,” lies and deception
are credible
means to...
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MACEDONIA IN LIMBO
Daniel Serwer
December 20, 2016
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Macedonia’s December 11 election has
left the country in precarious limbo while
the State Election
Commission decides
several appeals. Initial
results suggest the
former Macedonian ruling party (VMRO-DPMNE) won a plurality but...
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GEOPOLITICS OF THE
BALKANS AFTER TRUMP
Jasmin Ademovic
November 29, 2016
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Donald Trump’s victory upended the
predictable
anti-Russian focus of
Hillary Clinton’s foreign
policy, which would have featured a strong presence in the
Balkans to preserve her husband’s legacy and push the...
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POPULISM ON TOP
Author: Janusz Bugajski
23 November 2016
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Populism has two core components:
anti-elitism and nativism. The first is manifest in an
anti-establishment
rebellion by a political party or movement claiming to represent
ordinary,
disempowered citizens.
The second places the
narrowly...
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WHAT TO EXPECT IN
THE BALKANS
Daniel Serwer
November 15, 2016
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Not much, in the first instance. It
has now been a long time since a president of the United States
regarded the Balkans as a priority. A region that in the 1990s
was the object of two US military interventions (in Bosnia and...
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European Commission
SERBIA 2016 REPORT
Brussels, November 9, 2016
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The European Council granted Serbia the
status of candidate country in 2012. The Stabilisation and
Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the EU entered
into force in September 2013...
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LOSE AN ELECTION,
TRY A COUP
Daniel Serwer
October 27, 2016
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Montenegro, invited to join NATO less than a
year ago, completed its accession negotiations in May. Eleven
countries have already ratified the accession agreement. But
opponents are not giving up: they planned and a coup immediately...
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MONTENEGRO ON TRACK
FOR NATO
Author: Janusz Bugajski
20 October 2016
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Two related issues were central to
the 16 October parliamentary elections: relations with the West
and ties with Russia.
Montenegrin authorities accused Moscow of direct interference in
the election process. Prime...
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CONCEIVABLE SURPRISES
Eleven Possible Turns in
Russia’s Foreign Policy
Sabine
Fischer and
Margarete Klein (eds.)
October 2016, Berlin
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Russia’s foreign policy has taken numerous
unexpected turns since
2013. Developments such as the annexation of
Crimea, the military...
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THIS IS NOT
THE OCTOBER SURPRISE
Daniel Serwer
October 13, 2016
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Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump apologized yesterday for NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia:
The bombing of Serbs, who were our allies in both world wars,
was a big mistake…Serbians are very good people.
Unfortunately, the Clinton administration...
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HOW FAR WE ARE FROM
UNDERSTANDING
OUR
OWN PAST?
On the occasion of the
30th
anniversary of SANU
Memorandum (1986)
By Latinka Perović
NIN weekly, Sep 26, 2016
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Over the past thirty years many articles,
including serious scholarly studies, have been written about the
Memorandum of the
Serbian...
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLIC!
Daniel Serwer
September 16, 2016
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Vladimir Filipović of Belgrade daily Blic
asked some questions for a special edition celebrating the
newspaper’s 20th anniversary. I replied: 1. As the talk about
Chinese growth intensifies, its military is getting stronger,
and while Beijing is defying even USA...
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WHEN TIME STOOD STILL
Masuma Hasan
July 2016
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My visit to Panipat in
September 1987 was one
of the more distressing
events of my journey to
India in
connection with an international training programme which took
me
to many cities ─ Delhi,
Agra, Banglore, Mysore, Hyderabad. I...
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SURPRISE!
Daniel Serwer
June 24, 2016
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Yes, the “leave” vote surprised me. I
expected economic rationality and political equanimity to
prevail over distaste for immigrants and flag-waving England
firsters. Identity politics has triumphed once again. Let it be
a lesson to
me. The...
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RUSSIA STIFLES SERBIA
Author: Janusz Bugajski
June 20, 2016
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Vučić was scheduled to travel to Brussels for
the formal opening of EU membership talks, and to the United
States on an inaugural Air Serbia flight to New York, followed
by talks with American officials on
June 21. But...
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THIS DOESN’T MAKE
SENSE
Daniel Serwer
April 23, 2016
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US Ambassador to NATO Lute said Friday: I
think Russia plays an important part in the strategic
environment… [which] will put a break on NATO expansion. If you
accept the premises…about Russia’s internal weakness and perhaps
steady decline, it may not make...
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Art - Exhibitions
MONUMENTS SHOULD
NOT BE TRUSTED
Curated by L. Džuverović
16 Jan 2016 - 04 Mar 2016
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Monuments Should Not Be Trusted brings
together
over 30 leading artists and groups from the “golden years” of
the Socialist
Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia...
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EUROPE’S
REFUGEES
DESERVE BETTER
George Soros
October 27, 2015
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There is a striking contrast between Europe’s
legacy of providing protection to
victims of past conflicts and its treatment of the asylum
seekers reaching its
shores today. My own story is one of surviving Nazi occupation
and fleeing communist...
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IS WAR ABOUT
TO BREAK
OUT IN THE BALKANS?
By James Lyon
October 26, 2015, FP
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Lost in the cacophony of international news
about Russian airstrikes against U.S.-backed anti-Assad rebels
in Syria and
refugees flooding through the Balkans on their way to Western
Europe, a crisis is brewing in Bosnia-
Herzegovina on the
European Union’s
southeast...
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COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
Daniel Serwer
October 14, 2015 |
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I today attended a meeting with Republika
Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Željka
Cvijanović, who is in
Washington talking about reducing government Bosnia’s
bureaucracies
and decentralizing the
Bosnian state. I can agree
with her general stance on those...
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Council of the EU
EUROPEAN COUNCIL
MEETING – CONCLUSIONS
15 October 2015
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Tackling the migration and refugee crisis is
a common obligation which requires a comprehensive strategy
and
a determined effort
over time in a spirit of
solidarity and
responsibility. The orientations agreed by Heads of State or...
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Council of the EU
COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS
ON MIGRATION
Luxembourg, 12 October 2015
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The unprecedented migratory and refugee
crisis that the EU is now facing has witnessed a
sharp increase
of mixed migratory flows along the Eastern Mediterranean and
Western Balkans, in
parallel with a constant...
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JUDY ASKS: WILL
THE REFUGEE CRISIS
DESTROY THE EU?
Posted by: Judy Dempsey
September 23, 2015
Carnegie Europe
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Every week, a selection of leading experts
answer a
new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign
and security policy
challenges shaping
Europe’s role in the world. Cornelius Adebahr,
Associate in...
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JUDY ASKS: SHOULD
THE WEST WORK
WITH
RUSSIA ON SYRIA?
Posted by: Judy Dempsey
September 16, 2015
Carnegie Europe
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Every week, a selection of leading experts
answer a
new question from Judy Dempsey on the foreign
and security policy
challenges shaping
Europe’s role in the world. Federiga Bindi, Senior
fellow at the...
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Amnesty International
SYRIA'S REFUGEE
CRISIS IN NUMBERS
4 September 2015
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Refugees in the region;
More than 4 million
refugees from Syria (95%) are in just five countries Turkey,
Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt: Lebanon hosts approximately 1.2
million refugees from Syria which amounts...
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BETWEEN RUSSIA
AND THE WEST
Dysfunctionality in Serbia
and Bosnia
reflects the
larger economic conflict
between Russia and the
west.
Carole Hodge
29 September 2015
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
has become a new
conflict zone between Russia and the west...
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DIALOGUE BIH 2.0
Weekly Report - WR#37
September 4, 2015 |
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Regional cooperation has picked up steam,
even if EU enlargement remains no closer for most of the
region than a year ago. It is undeniable, however, that there is
a slightly renewed dynamism. The refugee
the official...
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Vienna Western Balkans Summit 2015
ADDENDUM
August 27, 2015
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The connectivity agenda has been fuelled by
political leadership given by the
Berlin process and the
reinforced cooperation of
the Western Balkan 6. This has been
combined with substantial technical...
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GUY VERHOFSTADT:
SPEECH ON GREECE
Guy Verhofstadt
July 8, 2015 |
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"I got angry this morning at Mr Tsipras,
because we need to see concrete proposals coming from
him. We can only avoid a
#Grexit if he takes his responsibility. Watch my
speech again here". Guy Maurice Marie Louise
Verhofstadt is a Belgian
politician...
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LETTER TO VICE
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
Hugh Williamson
June 1, 2015
|
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I am writing to you in view of your June 1
meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić. The
United States government can play a key role in urging Serbian
authorities to
address serious and
ongoing human rights
concerns in...
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PRESS RELEASE FROM
RWL SEE
May 20, 2015
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On 09 and 10 May 2015 in Kumanovo, Republic of Macedonia, few events
took place that were very
disturbing. A large group of armed persons
clashed
with police in a very densely populated area in the
downtown
area in
Kumanovo. Peace and
security of all...
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Izabela Kisić, Executive
director of the HCHRS
MOCKERY OF
JOURNALISTS CONTINUES
Author: Safeta
Biševac
April 6, 2015, Danas
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In the 2014 annual report currently
being prepared by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia,
it
is stated that the trend of violation of...
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RUSSIA: INSTIGATOR OR
OPPORTUNIST
By Jordan P. Weinberg
March 2015
|
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In the eyes of the West, any thawing of
relations with Russia in the wake of the global financial crisis
is a distant memory.1 The last few years has proven Russian
foreign policy aggressively anti-Western as Russia seeks to...
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LETTER TO NOAM
CHOMSKY
Zoran Janić
|
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Dear Mr. Chomsky,
Your well-known and often exaggerated attitudes on the US role in
creation of world politics, unfortunately, are to be given a
tendentious interpretation
in Serbian media, as was the case with
your recent blog about the terrorist
attack on the...
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IN FOCUS - ARCHIVA |
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