Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in February 2024.
EPA-EFE/Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Tension in the western Balkans, which has been troubled by ethnic tensions since the wars of the 1990s, is becoming an increasing concern for the EU and Nato.
Bumble Dee/Shutterstock
Kosovo is under pressure from the US and EU to give in to some of Serbia’s demands.
A woman with flowers walks past a building fortified with sandbags in the Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
The fragility of peace settlements in the Balkans provides a cautionary tale. US and EU policymakers may inadvertently make matters worse by acceding to the aggressor’s territorial ambitions.
Israeli soldiers take positions near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Dec. 11, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza in the war ignited by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The best — or least bad — solution to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves setting up a transitional administration in Gaza. Here’s how it could work.
EPA-EFE/Andrej Cukic
Serbia’s nationalist government seeks re-election. If it succeeds, Europe may be poised for renewed war in the Balkans.
Nato peacekeepers patrol after one police officer was killed and another wounded in an attack.
AP/Alamy
A key meeting is being held in the Balkans as the EU and US seek to resolve regional tension, partly stoked by pro-Russian forces.
A Kosovo police officer guards a road near the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo in September 2023 following an attack on police officers by Serbian militants.
(AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic)
The U.S. and the EU have neglected the Balkans, hoping that the allure of EU integration would be enough to placate Serbia and other countries. It was not.
EPA/Julien Warnand
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s 2023 state of the union speech saw her press for expansion for the union’s own good.
Things looking up for the Bush-Berlusconi relationship.
Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)
The former Italian prime minister died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 86. Throughout his terms in office he cultivated closer ties with the US – with mixed results.
A witness cries while giving testimony in a trial against former Guatemalan dictator Gen. José Efraín Ríos Montt in 2013.
Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)
College students learn about people who have dedicated their professional lives to reducing the threat of violence – and their successes and failures.
AP Photo/Bojan Slavkovic
Once again ethnic tensions have boiled over in Kosovo.
Freedom fighter or something darker? The former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
EPA-EFE/Koen van Weel
The trial of the former Kosovan president and several others highlights the sharp and enduring divisions and differing interpretations of history.
National fervour: ethnic Serbs protest in Northern Mitrovica in Kosovo.
EPA-EFE/Djordje Savic
Leaders on both sides are ramping up hostility for their own ends.
Kosovo Force and Kosovo Border Police conduct a joint patrol on the administrative boundary line between Kosovo and Serbia.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David I. Marquis, Multinational Battle Group-East/Alamy
Russia’s backing of Serbia during the Ukraine war is aggravating tensions with its neighbour Kosovo.
A miner silhouetted as he works in the Stan Terg mine in northern Kosovo.
Armend Nimani/AFP via Getty Images
Our prospects of a better, fairer future are inextricably linked with the minerals and metals beneath our feet. Is it time to make peace with the industry that extracts them?
Contested crossing: Kosovan Serbs protest at the ban on entry of vehicles with Serbian registration plates, September 2021.
Reuters/Laura Hasani
Unrest in the Balkans might be orchestrated by Russia, but the crisis is also an opportunity for the west.
A boy attends a celebration to mark the anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
EPA/Kusthrim Ternava
Kosovo, Taiwan, Palestine, Catalonia and Bougainville are all seeking independence, with varying levels of success.
The government of Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti lost a non-confidence vote on March 25.
Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA
The collapse of the government in Kosovo is a victory for reactionary forces within Kosovo and the self-seeking agenda of the Trump administration.
The participants in the West Balkans conference pose for the group photo at the chancellery in Berlin on April 29, 2019.
Michael Sohn / POOL / AFP
What can be the road ahead for Kosovo and Serbia under the EU patronage?
A man surveys the wreckage after a NATO strike misses its target and hits an apartment block in 1999.
EPA
The fallout from this 78-day military campaign continues to be felt.