Patterns and management of ethnic relations in the Western Balkans and the Baltic States

Project Information

MERWBKBS

Grant agreement ID: 749400

DOI

10.3030/749400

Project closed

EC signature date 16 March 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 30 April 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 136 582,80

EU contribution

€ 136 582,80

Coordinated by

TARTU ULIKOOL
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MERWBKBS (Patterns and management of ethnic relations in the Western Balkans and the Baltic States)

Reporting period: 2017-05-01 to 2019-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project focused on ethnic politics in the Western Balkans and the Baltic States.

Its main findings are as follows:

(1) Ethnic relations in the Western Balkans and the Baltic States

The relaxation of the bond between regional security and ethnic relations facilitated the EU's engagement on minority rights in Serbia. The powerful bond between regional security and ethnic relations complicated the EU's engagement on minority rights in Latvia.

(2) The populist and radical right in the Baltic States

The populist and radical right in Estonia and Latvia centres on: ethnic politics, regional security and anti-immigration. The Euroscepticism of the Estonian Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) and Latvia’s National Alliance comprises three components: geopolitical, economic and sociocultural.

(3) Euroscepticism in Serbia and Croatia

Whereas in Croatia, Euroscepticism is multifaceted, in Serbia it focuses on geopolitics. Ruling HDZ (Croatia) and SNS (Serbia) employ Euroscepticism in a 'soft' and adaptive manner.

(4) Information warfare and identity politics in Estonia and Latvia

Pro-Kremlin media exert a certain impact upon the younger ethnic Russians’ identity-perceptions. This influence is subject to socioeconomic realities, the fragmentation within the ethnic Russian communities and the opportunities granted by Estonia’s and Latvia’s membership of the EU.

(5) Ethnic relations in Serbia and Croatia

Intercultural cohabitation has been a living reality in the region of Vojvodina (Serbia) and it is to account for the generally low propensity to ethnic conflict. Vojvodinian regionalism has been exerting an appeal that cuts across ethno-cultural boundaries.

Of pivotal importance, in the region of Istria (Croatia), are: the safeguarding of the Partisan movement’s legacies and the legal framework on minority rights by the dominant party of the Istrian Democratic Assembly; the cooperation among people from different ethnic backgrounds in the tourist industry.

(6) Ethnic politics in Central and Eastern Europe

The cooperation between experts in ethnic politics and experts in the far right needs to become more systematic. This will enable experts in ethnic politics to assess more precisely the degree to which Euroscepticism and anti-immigration can reshape ethnic politics across Central and Eastern Europe. It will also enable experts in the far right to elaborate new models about how populist and Eurosceptic actors embed their agendas inside pre-existing political cultures of nationalism.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Fieldwork was conducted in Estonia, Latvia, Croatia and Serbia. Visits to Latvia, Croatia and Serbia were completed within 15 days each. Semi-structured expert interviews were conducted with politicians, civil servants, academics/researchers, journalists, NGOs, the clergy and residents in multi-ethnic communities. Locally-available surveys and reports, articles and other academic works (published and unpublished), party-documents, legal documents and other literature on the management of ethnic relations were accumulated. The research findings were disseminated in conferences and workshops. A list of publications follows:

(1) Monographs

National Identity in Serbia: The Vojvodina and a Multiethnic Community in the Balkans, (expected: 17 October 2019.

(2) Articles

'Identity Politics and Right-wing Populism in Estonia: The Case of EKRE', (Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2019), (DOI: 10.1080/13537113.2019.1602374 ).

'Geopolitics, Ethnopolitics and the EU: The Cases of Serbia and Latvia', Ethnopolitics, 2019, (https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2019.1630943).

'Between Party-Systems and Identity Politics: The Populist and Radical Right in Estonia and Latvia' (co-authored with Stefano Braghiroli), European Politics and Society, 2019, (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23745118.2019.1569340).

(3) Chapters

'Hijacking the Left? The Populist and Radical Right in Two Post-Communist Polities', (Left Radicalism and Populism in Europe (chapter 8), Routledge Studies in Radical History and Politics), (expected: August 2019.

'Ethnopolitics across Central and Eastern Europe in a State of Flux: Time for Updating and Upgrading?', (Regionalisms and Neighbourhoods at Europe’s Eastern Margins: The Baltic – Black Sea Patch- /Networks, edited by Andrey Makarychev and Olga Bogdanova, Springer Publishing), (expected: December 2019).

(4) Other publications

’Ethnopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in a State of Flux: Introduction’, Ethnopolitics, Vol. 18, No. 4, 1–4, 2019, (https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2019.1613067).

(5) Manuscripts under review

'Diverging or Converging Patterns of Euroscepticism? The Cases of Croatia and Serbia' (Journal of Contemporary European Studies).

(6) Commentaries

‘It Is Also the Economy, Stupid! The Rise of Economic Euroscepticism in Central and Eastern Europe’, Open Democracy, 23 February 2019.

‘As Long As It Lasts: Latvia’s New Coalition Government’, Open Democracy, 26 January 2019.

‘Contrasting Euroscepticisms in Croatia and Serbia’, Open Democracy, 23 January 2019.

‘Estonia’s Populist and Radical Right: How Radical Are They?’ (co-authored with Stefano Braghiroli), Open Democracy, 18 December 2018.

‘Why Catalonia is not the Balkans’, Open Democracy, 18 October 2017.

‘Competing Conservatisms in Serbia and Croatia’, Open Democracy, 11 July 2017.

‘Enter Serbia's ‘Orbán’? Aleksandar Vučić and his Catch-all Politics’, Open Democracy, 28 June 2017.

(7) Briefs

‘Contrasting Euroscepticisms in Croatia and Serbia’, ÖGfE Policy Brief 03’2019, 15 February 2019, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Europapolitik, (https://oegfe.at/2019/03/eurosceptisisms-croatia-serbia/?cn-reloaded=1).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The findings of this project can be useful to: academics, political analysts, think-tanks, international organizations and NGOs. Clarifying Serbian Euroscepticism, and how this differs from Euroscepticism in Croatia, can be insightful for political analysts at the European Commission. This project also provided valuable knowledge about why and how within certain contexts (Baltic States) the refugee question became heavily politicized whereas within other contexts (Western Balkans) it did not.

This study shed light on how sociocultural specificities can interact constructively with the management of ethnic relations in the multiethnic societies of Western Balkans. This project provided insights on why and how the ‘information warfare’ between Estonia/Latvia and Russia becomes subject to identity politics within these societies; therefore, no ‘alarmist conclusions’ should be reached by external observers. This is equally valid in regards to why and how the strength of the bond between geopolitics and ethnic politics can generate a breakthrough (Serbia) or prolong stagnation (Latvia) in the field of minority rights. This project helped set up an initial platform towards updating and upgrading the existing theoretical approaches for the study of ethnic politics.

The major objective is to prepare a monograph that will build and expand on the findings of this project. The provisional title is: ‘Rethinking Ethnopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe. Lessons from the Western Balkans and the Baltic States’.

Forthcoming monograph cover