Prague Security Studies Institute

The prospect of accession of the Western Balkans into the EU has been declining, with Brussels unwilling to accept new members, and the Western Balkan region becoming indifferent towards adopting EU-imposed norms. Although this process has been extensively studied, the academic literature has largely omitted the roles of external actors. This article fills the gap by focusing on China and its role vis-à-vis the ongoing Europeanisation of Serbia and Montenegro, both of which host significant Chinese investments and are regional frontrunners in the EU enlargement process. We begin by addressing theoretical aspects of Europeanisation and then apply this framework to our case studies. Our position is that the two states’ turn to the policy of alternatives is the result of failing Europeanisation, allowing them to deepen their engagement with China - an action that has become synonymous with the policy of alternatives to EU enlargement.

Writing about the history of the Cold War is becoming difficult, because so much has been written about it already. The regional Cold Wars looks at this era from an unusual angle. The editor and co-author, together with the 16 authors of individual chapters, divided the book into four main parts: 1953–6, 1965–9, 1978–83 and the late 1980s, allowing them to skip many important events, such as the Korean War, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet politburo coup of October 1964 or the Yom Kippur War. The first part of the book covers the period between Stalin's death and the three major events of 1956: the Hungarian uprising, the events in Poland and the Suez Crisis. The second deals with the crisis of NATO in 1966—treated very academically—some aspects of the Vietnam War, the Six-Day War, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the slow emergence of China as a significant international player. The third section covers the improvement of Israeli—Egyptian relations, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the end of detente, the Iranian Revolution and the China—Vietnam military conflict.

The selection of the areas covered in this book is unusual since they represent a very widespread set of pieces in the post-communist puzzle. Most of the areas covered—Tajikistan, the Caucasus, Georgia, Moldova and Transnistria—were once part of the Soviet Union, while Afghanistan was invaded by the USSR and the two other countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, were part of Yugoslavia. What these regions do have in common is the experience of brutal internal conflicts and a very painful transition to what is, in various degrees, the troubled unknown. All of the countries are still facing difficult years ahead, though they represent a spectrum, with Georgia at one end being the closest to what could be a functioning democracy, despite its recent political tensions, and Afghanistan facing a very bleak future at the other. Watching countries in which democracy is yet to be discovered is a difficult task. This is maybe one of the reasons why all of the authors use mainly English language sources.