Islamic factor in the West Balkans in geopolitical concepts of western powers and Islamic centers of power

Abstract

Civilizational stereotypes of the ideological incompatibility and traditional discord of Christian and Islamic civilizations cannot explain the occasional partnership arrangements in the Balkans between the great powers of Western (post)Christian civilization and religious and political centers of Islamic civilization, as well as the Western powers' assuming the role of protector of Balkan Muslims in conflicts with local Christians. This phenomenon is still evident in a specific Balkan territorial whole called the 'Western Balkans'. It is populated with substantial and influential Muslim minority, and is characterized by its political, economic and security instability. Acknowledging the civilizational postulates in explaining the social phenomena, the explanation of this phenomenon should, however, be looked for in the sphere of rational and piercingly realistic geopolitical views of great Western powers directed towards the Balkans, as well as the role of the Islamic factor in their geopolitical concepts. Therefore, this paper, through an analysis of the impact of certain aspects of the Islamic factor on the most important features of the geopolitical position of the 'Western Balkans', seeks to more closely, through the prism of geopolitical observations, explain and predict further courses of development of the civilizationally inconceivable geopolitical alliances in this area.