This edited book analyzes Kosovo’s foreign policy and bilateral relations with the United States and several European countries. After the 1999 liberation from Serbia, Kosovo built close relations with various countries that supported it in the process of reconstruction, economic stabilization, institution-building, and state-building. From 1999 to 2008, many of these states were politically and operationally engaged in Kosovo under the leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Since its independence in 2008, the Republic of Kosovo has adopted a foreign policy in accordance with its values and strategic interests, a foreign policy that aims to strengthen Kosovo’s security and foster its socio-economic prosperity in collaboration with primarily Western countries. In this volume, each chapter is dedicated to Kosovo’s bilateral relations with a selected state with which it has established diplomatic relations. The book shows that Kosovo has been able to develop and achieve strong bilateral relations with major allies and partners. It argues that Kosovo’s foreign policy aims to develop, maintain, and enhance the position of the young state on the international stage. The volume bridges various methodological and disciplinary approaches in order to present Kosovo’s foreign policy objectives and the trajectory of its relations with some of its most important international partners. This book will be of interest to students of Balkan politics, state-building, foreign policy, and International Relations.

The post-Yugoslav states have developed very differently since Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s. This book analyzes the foreign policies of the post-Yugoslav states, thereby focusing on the main goals, actors, decision-making processes and influences on the foreign policies of these countries.

Foreign Policy: From Conception to Diplomatic Practice represents an original and important contribution to the study of foreign policy, uniquely framed by the experiences of small and new countries. Ambassador Ernest Petri? artfully brings together academic expertise and years of diplomatic experience to provide a thorough treatment of national and international environments, the foreign policy decision making process and an original analysis of the means of foreign policy and diplomacy. The role of the United Nations, the EU, strategic actors and the role of foreign policy as a diplomatic instrument are examined. Finally a reflection of the foreign policy concerns of small and new countries, with special attention to Slovenia and legal aspects are offered.

Reconfiguring EU Peripheries explores the diverse nature of the European Union’s interactions with its peripheries. Focusing on a period of rising regional tensions marked most recently by the war in Ukraine, the volume casts new empirical and conceptual light on the diverse motivations that underpin the political elites’ attitudes towards the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine. The volume engages with various understandings of the EU’s interactions with its different peripheries and shows how these dynamics are closely related to the self-perceived nature of the societies in question in relation to the EU. The impact of recent crises and conflicts underscore in some cases the need for strengthening solidarity and for ‘more EU’, whereas others highlight the doubts and disappointment over the challenges these societies have faced over recent years. The empirically rich case studies enable both interpretations of and debates on the EU integration processes. A comparative exploration of countries at different stages in the EU accession process and the various political elites’ attitudes towards the EU outlines the essentially constructed nature of peripherality. By challenging the conventional understanding of contestation and peripherality, this volume is a worthwhile first step towards looking at the EU and the peripheries it creates from an alternative, and sometimes ignored, point of view.

This book delves into Turkey’s increasing ethno-religious, pragmatic, and complicated involvement and activism in the Balkans since 2002, under the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi – AKP). It primarily focusses on the intersectionality between domestic and foreign policy that has played an important role in Turkey’s recent relations with the Balkan countries as well as exploring how the Europeanisation process influences this relationality. Broadly, the chapters in this volume posit that religion, ethnicity and kin politics are indispensable components of identity politics and have the capacity to transform Turkey’s foreign policy attitudes as well as the orientations of the Balkan countries. The book also asserts that the impact of the processes of Europeanisation and de-Europeanisation on the relationship between Turkey and the Balkans needs to be included into the analysis. This book will be useful to students, researchers and academics interested in Politics, International Relations and Southeast European Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

The question of shifting American power.

Although a great deal is known about the recognition of states, less is known about the practice of derecognition of states, namely why and how states withdraw the recognition of other contested and partially recognized states. The Derecognition of States offers a global and comparative outlook of this unexplored diplomatic practice. Using original empirical research, it addresses the complex processes, justifications, and consequences of state derecognition. In particular, it provides unique insights into five aspirant states facing withdrawal of recognition: Taiwan, Western Sahara, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Kosovo. Gëzim Visoka argues that state derecognition is a highly controversial and unstable practice that has less to do with the unfulfillment of the conditions of statehood by the claimant than with the advancement of the self-interest of the former base state and derecognizing state. The derecognition of states is not a rule; rather, it is an exception in international diplomacy, driven by political expediency and is incompatible with original rationales for granting recognition. Yet, the derecognition of states is far more important than previously recognized in shaping the reversal dynamics of secession and state creation and in influencing regional peace, geopolitical rivalries, and the international order. By analyzing the withdrawal of recognition, the book offers a window into the reversal politics of unbecoming a sovereign state and how the arbitrary beginning and the end of diplomatic relations between states take place.