Abstract
The volume edited by Armakolas and Ker-Lindsay is most certainly an interesting addition to academic scholarship dealing with the Kosovo issue. Although the Kosovan conflict and international diplomacy leading to the former Serbian province’s independence in 2008 have generally been well researched in international academic scholarship so far, Kosovan independence and the recognition issue have however been only occasionally treated as such in the said scholarship, particularly so in the form of a volume. In that regard, the edited volume introduces new information and argues cases that had so far been at best presented sporadically mostly in academic articles and, to a much larger degree, non-academic pieces of various think-tanks, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and so on.
The said volume is composed of 11 chapters, discussing various cases of Kosovan (non)recognition by selected EU states. In that regard, as the editors themselves claim in the first chapter that also introduces methodological considerations, the issue of Kosovan independence in relation to EU states that have and have not recognized Kosovo is that this simple division tells an incomplete, if not wholly wrong, story. In truth, the two broad camps – recognisers and non-recognisers – are far more heterogeneous than is often realised. Over the course of the past ten years, a wide variation of positions has emerged.
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Therefore, the editors decided to argue the Kosovan (non)recognition by asking a team of international experts to analyse different diplomatic responses to the said independence of selected EU member states. Hence, the volume’s introductory chapters provide treatments of the United Kingdom and Germany’s relationship with Kosovo, only to continue with the Czech Republic and Poland having recognized Priština but remained reluctant and diplomatically disengaged towards developing any stronger ties in this regard. The volume then continues with the chapters on non-recognizers in Greece, Slovakia and Romania, only to finish with the sections on Cyprus and Spain as having refused to recognize Kosovo and having very limited mutual ties with Priština. The given structure is fully in line with the methodological section that opens the volume and comes at a peculiar time when Kosovo is facing somewhat of a halt in terms of being internationally recognized, with the obvious need to address its respective foreign policy priorities. This particular point has been specifically argued in the second chapter, where respective Kosovan strategy and issues with it are introduced.
In respect to this, it is certainly fair to say that the editors have managed to compile a volume showing manner in which the said states have reacted to the Kosovan independence and, more importantly, analysing the rationale and consequences behind such actions. In that regard, the volume is valuable because it delivers an analysis of the selected EU states’ responses/reactions to the Kosovan independence by treating this issue from a number of different vantage points, having diplomatic recognition and subsequent (non)relations at the heart of the selected methodological approach.
Last but not least, The Politics of Recog-nition and Engagement: EU Member State Relations with Kosovo is certainly a piece to be addressed by all those who in (not only academic) manner deal with the issue of Kosovo. The volume’s greatest contribution therefore lies exactly in this fact and thus presents a great opportunity and initial source of information to (not only) researchers engaged in a more in-depth analysis of the said states’ foreign policy towards Kosovo. Hence, the volume represents a must to those who study the region in whatever capacity, be that students, researchers or academics alike. The fact that the volume is, in terms of its language and style, rather reader-friendly points out to the fact that it is not strictly limited to professionals in the field but may also be useful to a much wider audience interested in the post-Yugoslav space in general.
