Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis CBG 5.05 and Dr Spyridon Economides

This course is available on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Columbia), MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Sciences Po), MSc in European and International Politics and Policy, MSc in European and International Politics and Policy (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Politics and Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Political Economy of Europe, MSc in Political Economy of Europe (LSE and Fudan) 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.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). In previous years we have been able to provide places for all students that apply but that may not continue to be the case.

An examination of South East Europe from a 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.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars totalling a minimum of 25 hours across Winter Term. This course includes a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term, and a review session will be held at the start of the Spring Term to prepare for the online assessment.

One 1,500 word essay.

• 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.

Online assessment (100%) in the ST.

The online assessment for this course will be administered via Moodle. Questions will be made available at a set date/time and students will be given a set period in the ST to complete the answers to questions and upload their responses back into Moodle.