Assess and discuss the role and influence of Europe in Balkans

Résumé du document

The Balkans are located at the crossroad of Europe and Orient and have undergone several influences. They have been under the Byzantium, Ottoman and Communist Yugoslavia's rules and all these legacies have influenced the region's identity. Europe influenced it as well, even if the region has never been occupied or dominated by Europeans, especially since the 18th century with the emergence of commercial links. However, the relation between Balkans and Europe has been a mixed-blessing for the Balkans. This region was a strategic place for European countries' interests, which led to realpolitik and intervention in the region. But it was also considered as the backward and poor antithesis of Europe, which led to demonization of the Balkans. This double-edged influence of Europe shaped the Balkans in many ways that can help to understand the Balkans's identity. However, Europe's role in the region has evolved and intensified since the collapse of Yugoslavia, and seems to announce a turning point for the Balkans.

To what extent and how Europe's role and influence in the Balkans shaped the region ? We will discuss first the ambivalent influence and role of Europe in the definition of Balkans identity, by focusing on Balkanism, believed legacies between Balkans and Europe and Europeanization. Then we will move on to the role of European interests in the Balkans, which have first been a factor of conflict but might become a source of peace.

Extraits

[...] On the other end, since the collapse of Yugoslavia, European interests in the Balkans have had positive impacts. If the success of Europe's military intervention in the 1990s was limited, Europe has helped in the democratic transition and to reestablish peace, and influenced the Balkans to the point that most countries of the region are now applicants EU and are ready to adopt European values. We can wonder if the Balkans will manage to keep their cultural specificity with the European integration. [...]

[...] As a result, we attended a sudden extension of the political and economical influence of Europe after 1989, when the Balkans looked for a new identity because the socialist one had disappeared. Europe is taking advantage of the will of the Balkans to bridge this inequality gap in order to extend its influence and promote its values via Europeanization. Europeanization is defined by Adam Fagan as process of construction, diffusion and institutionalization of rules, norms, values, procedures, defined by the EU and present in the “discourses, identities, political structures and public policies”. [...]

[...] Assess and discuss the role and influence of Europe in Balkans The Balkans are located at the crossroad of Europe and Orient and have undergone several influences. They have been under the Byzantium, Ottoman and Communist Yugoslavia's rules and all these legacies have influenced the region's identity. Europe influenced it as well, even if the region has never been occupied or dominated by Europeans, especially since the 18th century with the emergence of commercial links. However, the relation between Balkans and Europe has been a mixed-blessing for the Balkans. [...]

[...] To finish, the domination of Hitler's Germany on the Balkans led to the destruction of the newly created Yugoslavia. All these territorial changes were traumatic for populations and increased the instability of the region. The ongoing intervention of Europe in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth amplified the nationalist claims and the ethnic divisions. As a result, it paved the way for future conflicts. B. If Europe was for long a source of instability in the Balkans, it helped afterwards a to resolve the conflicts in the region. [...]

[...] Their policy toward the Balkans was ambiguous: they wanted to help them to emancipate from the Ottoman Empire but only in order to occupy or at least control the region. It led to even more instability, because of the territorial changes, and implied limited autonomy for the region. In fact all European great powers had interests in the Balkans. Russia wanted a passage from Black Sea to Mediterranean Sea; Britains considered them as a passage for their route to India; and Austria wanted control on the region to conserve the integrity of the Habsburg Empire. [...]