This Brief provides a survey of key political, social, and economic issues affecting the Western Balkans region. Taking a two-pronged conceptual approach focusing on fragmentation and integration, the volume highlights commonalities and differences in a number of simultaneous dynamics currently characterizing the region: Europeanization and EU access, market integration, and migration and socio-demographic transformations. Stressing the interconnectedness of these issues, the volume synthesizes key questions for the future of the region, such as the relationship between socio-demographic trends and economic development, the effects of depopulation on further EU integration, and the economic and political repercussions of enhanced intra-regional trade. Explicitly interdisciplinary, this Brief will be useful for researchers and students specializing in the Balkans and Western Balkans, post-socialist countries, European affairs, enlargement, foreign policy, international relations, regional studies, economics, economic transition, and socio-demographics.

Provides a state-of-the-art analysis of key political, social, and economic issues affecting the Western Balkans Synthesizes key questions for the future of the region, such as EU integration Is intended for both students and more experienced analysts, scholars and policymakers

Autorentext

Marco Zoppi is a Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna (Italy). He has a PhD in Histories and Dynamics of Globalization from Roskilde University (Denmark). His main research interests include: the study of migration phenomena in the European space, with particular attention to the Balkan area and the Central Mediterranean route; the analysis of integration processes and social safety nets in the diaspora; the study of Euro-African relations, their historical development and future prospects.