The Western Balkans Inside, Outside and Between the European Union: About the Nexus Between Regional Cooperation, European Integration and Security Sector Reforms

Abstract

Travelling through the (Western) Balkan region as a researcher delving into the policy and politics of the European Union means encountering the presence of the EU across the region and even as a topic of discussion in all sections of society. The EU is present there with political campaigns, youth projects, a large staff, several glazed buildings, and a plethora of political conditions. The EU, therefore, is a major topic of political debates in magazines, and integration with the EU is the sole foreign policy aim of the Western Balkan countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, envisions it as follows: