Endgame in the Balkans
Regime Change, European Style
Published on 26. September 2006
Book
Hardback
300 pages
978-0-8157-7160-9 (ISBN)
Description
Can Europe tame the Balkans? That's the question veteran journalist Elizabeth Pond addresses in this timely and absorbing book. Starting with the wars of the Yugoslav succession, Endgame in the Balkans guides readers through the region's tumultuous recent history and explores both how the lure of European Union (EU) membership has affected the Balkans and how Balkan developments have shaped the EU.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews, as well as decades of experience as a foreign correspondent, Pond moves deftly across the region, from Bulgaria to Romania, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia and Montenegro. She examines the many hurdles standing between these countries and EU membership -including poverty, corruption, and rabid chauvinism -as well as the hopes and problems that have led Balkan leaders to look to the West. In the process, she paints a vivid picture of the challenges facing the region as it seeks to vault from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.
Already in its brief history, the European Union has forged a historic reconciliation between France and Germany and helped consolidate democracy in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. But in southeastern Europe, it faces one of its most difficult tasks yet. En dgame in the Balkans r eveals the full extent of this challenge, as well as the grounds for hope. Rich in detail and penetrating analysis, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the future both of the region and of Europe as a whole.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews, as well as decades of experience as a foreign correspondent, Pond moves deftly across the region, from Bulgaria to Romania, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia and Montenegro. She examines the many hurdles standing between these countries and EU membership -including poverty, corruption, and rabid chauvinism -as well as the hopes and problems that have led Balkan leaders to look to the West. In the process, she paints a vivid picture of the challenges facing the region as it seeks to vault from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.
Already in its brief history, the European Union has forged a historic reconciliation between France and Germany and helped consolidate democracy in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. But in southeastern Europe, it faces one of its most difficult tasks yet. En dgame in the Balkans r eveals the full extent of this challenge, as well as the grounds for hope. Rich in detail and penetrating analysis, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the future both of the region and of Europe as a whole.
Reviews / Votes
"She is extraordinarily knowledgeable, and after a while the sheer volume of her information begins to cast a hypnotic spell." --Barry Gewen, New York Times Book Review, 12/17/2006 "Elizabeth Pond, in her survey of the Balkans and EU integration, considers not only the former Yugoslavia but also its neighborhood in her excellent survey of the state of scholarship on the entire region since the fall of communism. She has carefully sifted through the best political analyses available and pulled them together country by country." --Nicholas Whyte, Internationale Politik, 4/1/2007 "As in her previous books, Elizabeth Pond comes across as an analyst with a sharp intellect and a lucid judgement, but also as a seasoned journalist who takes us on a journey to relive both the tragedies and the successes of Balkan politics." -- International Affairs, 3/1/2007 "This compelling account combines arresting country studies with incisive regional explanations and analysis. Pond does not shy away from assigning blame for the region's many misfortunes to both national and international actors. Yet her sympathetic portrait goes well beyond the gloom of the 1990s to offer an encouraging and persuasive vision of purposeful Europeanization against hard odds." --Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace "Offers a well-informed comparative analysis of those parts of the Balkans that enjoyed an uneasy peace and therefore got the change to find a place on the European integration train and the victims of warfare whose place in the new Europe is still hard to determine... Elizabeth Pond is to be congratulated for providing a vivid and detailed portrait of the region's politics and role in international relations which is sure to be widely used by international officials needing an accessible compendium to make some sense of the Balkans." --Tom Gallagher, University of Bradford, SEER "This is vintage Pond at her best--always insightful, consistently fair-minded, and judicious. For anyone interested in the Balkan societies' recent quest for acceptance into the European Union, there is no better place to start than with this fine book." --Sabrina P. Ramet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, author of The Three Yugoslavias "A highly readable, intensively researched, people-centered portrait. The author offers us a sober, yet upbeat, prognosis of the Balkans' European destiny, if the many obstacles she cogently assesses can be surmounted." --Bowman Miller, Joint Military Intelligence College & former Director of Analysis for Europe, US Department of State "Pond, as a highly experienced journalist with good judgment and an incorruptible eye for the truth, does not draw this upbeat conclusion lightly; she painstakingly details the waste, corruption and persistence of organized crime across the region, and for each optimistic interpretation of events, she also produces a dark mirror image." -- Survival "A masterful survey of Europe's most turbulent region. Pond bases her refreshingly upbeat assessment on two dramatic transformations. The first is a palpable commitment by the people of southeastern Europe to overcome their history and push toward more democratic and tolerant societies. The second has been the determination of the West, particularly the EU, to abandon failed policies of Balkan containment in favor of integrating the region into the European mainstream." --Daniel Hamilton, Johns Hopkins University, former U.S. Special Coordinator for Southeast European Stabilization "The Balkans have been buffeted by dramatic change since the end of the Cold War. Elizabeth Pond has produced a remarkable account of these developments and of the European Union's efforts to mold the 'crooked timber' of the region over the past decade. Meticulously researched, insightful, and compelling, this book deserves to be read widely and carefully." --Richard Caplan, Oxford University, author of Europe and the Recognition of New States in Yugoslavia "Elizabeth Pond has written an excellent and comprehensive account of where the Balkans are now, and how they got there. Her book illustrates how progress is achieved: slowly, painfully, imperfectly, with many setbacks. This is a story of regime change as it really happens, and behind it lies the big but undefined idea of Europe. A timely and valuable contribution to contemporary history." --Robert Cooper, Director General for External & Politico-Military Affairs under EU High Representative Javier SolanaMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN-13
978-0-8157-7160-9 (9780815771609)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2007
1st Edition
Brookings Institution
€27.99
Available for download
Person
Elizabeth Pond is a journalist based in Germany. Currently a correspondent for the Washington Quarterly, she was a longtime European correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. She is the author, most recently, of Friendly Fire: The Near-Death of the Transatlantic Alliance (Brookings, 2003) and The Rebirth of Europe (Brookings, revised 2002).