Die Krisenregion Balkan im Zeichen europäischer Unsicherheit

On 9 March 2017, the CSS held an Evening Talk on the topic of

“The Balkans characterized by European insecurity”

The Balkans are of special interest to Switzerland. Since the Yugoslav Wars in the 90’s, there have been many people migrating to Switzerland coming from the Balkan region. On the other hand, the Swiss army is contributing to the UN peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. Contrary to initial hopes, the Balkans have been regressing to a crisis-afflicted region. What options could help restabilising the Balkans? Andreas Ernst, correspondent of the Neue Züricher Zeitung in Belgrade and Matthias Bieri, Researcher at the CSS were discussing this question. The EU-perspective is hardly realistic for most of the Balkan countries and illiberal forms of democracy have been frequently developed – supported by external foreign powers like Russia or Turkey. This contributed to stability to a certain extent which, however, cannot be mistaken for democracy or the rule of law