Local and international determinants of Kosovo's statehood - Volume II

Edited by Ioannis Armakolas, Agon Demjaha, Arolda Elbasani and Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, the volume is the follow up of the successful earlier collection focusing on some of the most pressing and challenging domestic and foreign policy questions facing Kosovo.

The book is the third in the series of core research outputs of the KFOS project entitled "Building Knowledge about Kosovo", which was launched in 2016 and has since morphed into the Foundation's flagship project-network "Kosovo Research and Analysis Fellowship (KRAF)".

This new book continues the endeavour of making a contribution to both scholarly analysis and policy thinking on the domestic and external influences and determinants to Kosovo’s statehood. It is divided in three parts that together cover a broad range of policy areas.

Part I focuses on culture, heritage and representations. Its chapters tackle various aspects of culture and heritage and, in a broader sense, identity and representations of self and other in contemporary Kosovo. Part II focuses on questions of local implementation and interpretation of international norms, rules and policies. The chapters in this part examine the complex politics of domestic reform and the challenges inherent in the transfer and adoption in Kosovo of policy ideas and institutional frameworks preferred by the international community. Part III focuses on the complicated relationship between Kosovo and the EU. Chapters in this part examine the ambiguities produced by the fact that the EU member states still do not have a unified stance on the question of Kosovo's independence, with five members, at varying degrees, creating obstacles in Prishtina's European integration hopes. At the same time, the chapters examine challenges resulting from the EU’s dwindling credibility due to its failure to deliver on its promises towards Kosovo as well as a result of the overall weakening of the Western Balkans EU accession perspective.

Authors: Luke Bacigalupo, Donjetë Murati, Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Juan Manuel Montoro, Julianne Funk, Meris Musanovic, José Carpintero Molina, Liljana Cvetanovska, George Kyris, Gentiola Madhi, Svjetlana Ramic Marković, Boshko Stankovski, Donika Emini.