This book argues that power struggles between internal and diasporic elites play a central role in building political agendas that shift national borders. It takes Albania as the primary case study, examining how the understanding of the Albanian nation has taken on different geographical borders over time and among different communities.

Autorentext

Ilir Kalemaj is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of New York Tirana. He is the author of Sources of Irredentism in Foreign Policy: Understanding Kin Policies in the Aftermath of Communism in Serbia and Albania (2009) and has published journal articles and book chapters on ethnic conflict, nationalism, identity politics, democratization and European integration. In addition to his academic research, he has published short stories and poetry and is a frequent contributor to the Albanian press.

Inhalt

Contents: Delineating the Playing Field: Virtual Borders and Imagined Geographies - Boundary Mapping and Territorialization of Identity - From Nation-Building to State Formation: How Virtual Mapping Intersected with Recognized Borders in the Albanian Imagination - The Interwar Period and the Shifting of Virtual Borders at Elite and Mass Level in Albania and Abroad: From Contractionary to Expansionary and Vice-Versa - From «Greater Albania» During the Second World War to Contractionary Borders in the Communist Era - Reimagining Territorial Landscape and Mental Borders in the Post-Communist and Democratic Transition Era.