Dr Spyridon Economides COW 2.07 and Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis COW 2.05

This course is available on the MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in EU Politics, MSc in EU Politics (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in European Studies: Ideas, Ideologies and Identities, MSc in European Studies: Ideas, Ideologies and Identities (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Political Economy of Europe and MSc in Political Economy of Europe (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

An examination of South East Europe from a politics, political economy and international relations perspective, with particular emphasis on post-1989 developments. Topics include: The Balkans in Europe and Historical Legacies; the Dissolution of Yugoslavia; The Western  Balkans and economic transition; the EU and the Balkans: regionalism and economic integration; Democratisation, state-building and Europeanisation in the Western Balkans; Conditionality and the mechanics of accession; the SEE2020 strategy and the structural reforms agenda; the Balkans and other external actors.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT. 1 hour and 30 minutes of seminars in the ST.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Two 1,500 word essays.

M. Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, Oxford University Press, 1997; M. Glenny, Balkans 1804-1999. Nationalism, War and the Great Powers, Granta Publishers, 1999; S Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, Brookings Institute, 1995; Lavigne M. (1999), The Economics of Transition, 2nd edition; Petrakos G. and Totev S. (eds) (2001), The development of the Balkan region, Aldershot; S. Ramet, Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, Cambridge University Press, 2005; Bartlett W. (2007), Europe's Troubled Region: Economic Development, Institutional Reform, and Social Welfare in the Western Balkans, Routledge;  A. Elbasani, European Integration and Transformation in the Western Balkans: Europeanization or business as usual?,  Routledge, 2013; Anastasakis O., Sanfey P. and Watson M. (eds) (2013), Defining a New Reform Agenda: paths to sustainable convergence in South East Europe, South East European Studies at Oxford, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford; EBRD (2013), Stuck in Transition?, Transition Report 2013, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.