Abstract Serbia, though aiming to join the EU, has developed a multifaceted relationship with China, dubbed “the steel friendship.” The authors delve into selected aspects of Sino-Serbian economic and security cooperation, examining infrastructure projects, as well as the opaqueness behind surveillance technology within the Belgrade-Beijing collaboration on security matters. These areas share, as a common denominator, political elites bypassing the existing legal framework and trying to enact new laws contrary to EU standards, leading to abuses of personal data, biometric surveillance, and deficiencies in the implementation of Chinese-backed projects, all of which reflect the authoritarian nature of the Serbian regime. The authors discuss a rarely addressed topic, focusing on the Serbian political elite’s exploitation of economic cooperation and its abuse of surveillance technology to infringe on citizens’ rights. Our article complements the scholarship on semi-authoritarianism, state capture, the Chinese role in the Western Balkans, and, most notably, security cooperation between Beijing and Belgrade.

Abstract This article examines emerging environmental activism in Kosovo, focusing on the right to water as a key theme in grassroots responses to resource crises. Using political ecology and photo-elicitation interviews with activists and experts, the study reveals how lived experiences and local knowledge shape resistance to environmental degradation, injustice, and resource privatization. Activism is portrayed as a dynamic, intersectional movement tied to contested ecologies and rooted in marginality, memory, and ongoing struggles over natural resources. Rather than treating environmentalism as a singular issue, the article frames it as a constellation of interconnected struggles. The visual, process-oriented methodology emphasizes both resistance and solidarity, showing how environmental crises can inspire wider political mobilization. Additionally, the research contributes to understanding regional dynamics and insecurities, illustrating how environmental activism is deeply embedded in Kosovo’s complex socio-political context and broader visions for transformative justice.

Abstract Over quarter of a century since the end of the war, “Kosovo as a case study” continues to be studied in the realm of post-conflict reconstruction, (international) statebuilding and transitional justice. In this article, the authors argue that the reification of Kosovo as a case study has had two interrelated impacts in international relations (IR) literature and its sub-disciplines. First, the traditional literature has treated Kosovo as a black box: self-evident and self-explanatory in its problematique, yet, (nearly) impossible to solve. Second, the rendering of Kosovo as an inherently conflict-ridden context approached almost exclusively through the lens of reified ethnic and national categories and international intervention overlooks or neglects wider socio-cultural developments, the societal and individual impacts of its multiple transitions, ideological shifts and struggles, demographic trends as well as broader trans-border and transnational phenomena. This introductory article argues that – despite an emerging trend in literature, spearheaded by scholars from Kosovo, including the contributors in this special issue, or the wider Balkan, that seeks to turn the gaze away from macro-politics of international intervention and statebuilding to assemblages of hopes, disillusionments, crises, resistances and (counter)solidarities – much of Kosovo’s peculiarities, tensions, and contradictions remain unaddressed.

Abstract Occasionally, people and political parties in Kosovo self-identify with the left–right spectrum. But what does this identification really mean? Holding the findings from the Western democracies about the impact of personality traits on people’s ideological orientation as references, the authors compared how the same traits explain Kosovo citizens’ identification along both a self-reported ideological identification and a left–right ideological index of socio-political issues. The authors argue that the link between personality and orientation may be more universal than one may expect. They find that Kosovars understand their ideological orientation and self-identify along similar explanatory personality traits as in the West, and that the same personality traits better predict the ideological inclinations as defined by people’s sociopolitical attitudes (political compass) than their ideological self-identification. However, there is a mismatch with party preferences. The authors argue that this is a supply-side shortcoming – a consequence of party articulation and policy inconsistency vis-à-vis party ideological self-positioning.

Abstract Amid the breakup of Yugoslavia, the 1990s in Kosovo were characterized by high political mobilization for independence. By comparison, the post-independence period has been largely perceived as one marked by “apathy.” This article questions the assumed straightforward relationship between historical experience and dissent by examining the conditions that generated political hopes in these two periods of Kosovo's recent history. Prioritizing an anthropological over prescriptive or retrospective approaches to hope, this article asks: what conditions, discourses, and modes of governance make specific political hopes plausible, certain forms of political agency conceivable, and particular politico-moral subjectivities desirable? Through ethnographic fieldwork with youth, the article considers the perceived Kosovar youth “apathy” as a lived tension between affective investments in the promissory state project and its future oriented trajectory. This temporal makeup of Kosovo coexists with what I refer to as “newborn governance,” a form of governance through hope, rooted in Kosovo’s positioning as a “newborn,” prospective EU state. The article contends that this orientation shapes political imagination, hope and access to future-making visions, often with demobilizing effects.

Abstract Kosovo is often viewed as an example of the liberal peace framework after war. Its “war-wing” parties became part of post-war mainstream politics, with ex-KLA leaders occupying major decision-making positions. However, the 2020 war crimes indictment of then-President Hashim Thaçi and war-time allies by the Special Court coincided with elections that produced a landslide victory for the rival Vetëvendosje party, relegating “war-wing” parties to opposition. This article offers a critique of the liberal peace framework, acknowledging that criminal trials are an important part of its mosaic. However, the article argues that in this case the timing of indictments coincided with government change, a transplantation of political power, and subsequent deteriorating talks with Serbia. It argues that the pursuit of justice through criminal trials as part of the liberal peace framework may indirectly impact not just a country’s political power balance, but can disrupt ongoing international peace processes.

Abstract In the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, the primary goal for the authorities in Pristina is not to maintain the status quo but to achieve final recognition of Kosovo’s statehood in the international arena. The main obstacle to realizing Kosovo’s foreign policy priorities is the creation of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities. This requirement stems from previous agreements made during the dialogue. While the debate primarily concerns Albanians and Serbs, the voices of other ethnic minorities in Kosovo remain largely unheard. This article aims to analyze the positions of non-majority communities in Kosovo during the tenure of Prime Minister Albin Kurti. By whom are these opinions articulated, and in what way? What is their assessment of the actions of the Kosovar authorities in this matter? What is their assessment of Serbia’s actions? What are their positions on this matter? This analysis will be based on official statements made by politicians from national minorities and interviews. The focus will be placed on statements made by representatives of these communities during parliamentary debates held during both terms of Prime Minister Albin Kurti (up until March 2024) and the interviews they gave then. Narrative analysis will be employed for this purpose.

Abstract This article investigates present-day sociolinguistic disparities between language policy and practice as echoing manifestations of Kosovo’s discordant interethnic past. Partially reflecting the wider dissonance between civic and ethnic notions of national belonging in Kosovo’s post-war context, the sociolinguistic realities today feature discrepancies between language policy and practice (Demaj and Vandenbroucke 2016). Shared officialdom between Albanian and Serbian, while warranted through the Language Law (2006), is undermined by practices of exclusion, in which Serbian is marginalized. Notably, the existing policy–practice dichotomy is not just the result of reversed power dynamics and ethno-demographic realities. Rather, it also stems from a language ideology deeply rooted in experiences of the past with echoes of the Serbian-only language policies of the 1990s shaping the perceptions of how the dominant Albanians perceive Serbian today. Firstly, this article aims to understand Kosovo’s post-war transition as a process in which language is an ideological instrument of ethno-linguistic contestation and negotiation. Secondly, the study seeks to anchor our understanding of the current discontinuities in the language politics of the past. The sociolinguistic research design combines visual documentation of linguistic signage of Kosovo’s public spaces in the 1990s with archival records and contemporary photographs.