As a consequence of different political strategies pursued by the Sandzak political elites and their respective interlocutors in Serbia and Montenegro, the political, socio-economic and security dynamics of transition in the two parts of Sandzak have taken a different course, with contrasting consequences on its long-term prospects of stability. This seminar discussed the current tensions in the Sandzak region, and was led by well-known experts on its unique historical trajectory.
During the 1990s, the Sandzak avoided being drawn into the brutal regional conflict pursued to recast the political geography of former Yugoslavia, by creating new states in Sandzak’s proximity, including a partition of Sandzak itself between Serbia and Montenegro. The transition that started in earnest with the cessation of armed conflicts in Sandzak’s neighborhood has been shaped by the (nation) state consolidation processes in Serbia and Montenegro and the contestations around minority issues.
Dr Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic is Associate Professorial Research Fellow, Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit at the LSE Department of International Development, specialising in informal economic practice, conflict and post-conflict economic recovery. She is the co-editor of Public Policy Making in the Western Balkans (Springer 2015), Civil Society and Transitions in the Western Balkans (Palgrave Macmillan 2013), Persistent State Weakness in a Global Age (Ashgate 2009), and Transnationalism in the Balkans (Palgrave Macmillan 2008).
Professor Kenneth Morrison is a Professor of Modern Southeast European History at De Montfort University. He is the author of Montenegro: A Modern History (IB Tauris, 2009), Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn: On the Frontline of Politics and War (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016) and Nationalism, Identity and Statehood in Post-Yugoslav Montenegro (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), and (with Elizabeth Roberts) the co-author of The Sandžak: A History (Hurst & Co/Oxford University Press, 2013). He was, in 2017, appointed Specialist Adviser on Balkan politics for the House of Lords International Relations Select Committee.
Professor James Ker-Lindsay (@JamesKerLindsay) is Professor of Politics and Policy in the School of Arts and Humanities, St Mary's University, where he leads on politics and international relations programmes. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe and is a Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies at Oxford University. Prof Ker-Lindsay was Senior Research Fellow at the European Institute, LSE, focusing on the Politics and International Relations of South East Europe. He has also worked at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest independent security and defence studies think tank, and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. His research focuses on conflict, peace and security in South East Europe (Western Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus), European Union enlargement, and secession and recognition in international politics. He has an extensive list of publications, including over a dozen authored or edited books and over 70 articles and book chapters.