Balkans

When the top international official overseeing the fragile peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced his resignation this week, analysts went into overdrive. Among other factors, many noted the public clashes between Christian Schmidt and Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik, who had never acknowledged his appointment and called him …

Sazan Island served as a naval base under Albania’s communist regime and remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence. To pave the way to granting it strategic investor status, Albania’s President Bajram Begaj earlier signed an urgent decree removing a military training zone from the Armed Forces deployment …

In North Macedonia, an enduring ethnic divide extends to conflicting interpretations of what actually happened during World War II. In villages above Tetovo and Gostivar, in the hills near North Macedonia’s northwestern border with Kosovo and Albania, scattered monuments reflect starkly differing interpretations of what went on in World War …

La ligne Budapest-Belgrade est la première section du projet de chemin de fer Budapest-Belgrade-Skopje-Athènes, un projet symbole de la coopération entre la Chine et l’Europe centre-orientale qui reliera la Hongrie, la Serbie, la Macédoine du Nord et le port du Pirée, géré par la Chine. L’opérateur ferroviaire serbe de transport …

A regularly heard concern is the profound demographic crisis. Many young people and their families have left, likely never to return. The population is rapidly aging. Whilst diaspora ties bring new hope and possibility, they cannot substitute for those living and breathing Bosnia and Herzegovina daily. Though some speak encouragingly …

A post‑Orbán reset is coming, but Péter Magyar’s nationalism tempers his pro‑EU signals; expect cooperation on Ukraine and security, and resistance on cultural and sovereignty issues. The Hungarian vote mattered far beyond Budapest: it would reshape EU unity on sanctions, funding, and enlargement; decide whether a NATO member remained a …

Territory, people, and physical power (security forces like police and army) are the inevitable prerequisites for creating a state. The ethnic Albanians were, at the beginning, intruders into the autonomous province of South-West Serbia – Kosovo-Metochia (KosMet), who constituted a small minority there (in 1455, only 2%). The focal question …

Such social and civic engagement is not new in Bosnia, historically. Throughout the modern history of Bosnia, there is a common thread of engagement on socioeconomic and institutional problems. Even before World War I, there was a history of Socialist political networks and movements. The 1990s war in Bosnia and …

The two countries most affected by the halt in Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, Hungary and Slovakia, stepped up their criticism of Ukraine for not restoring the flows promptly enough after it was apparently damaged in a Russian drone attack on Ukrainian territory at the end of January. …

The three days of February 16, 17 and 18, 2026 were a confluence of interrelated events of historical significance for the United States, Kosovo, and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which is in the final process of establishing its legacy. On February 16, the US celebrated George Washington’s birthday, the annual …