Abstract
This article provides an in-depth assessment of the peaceful change in the Western Balkan relations between the years 1999 and 2011 that happened despite weak internalisation of norms and unsuccessful democratisation. It argues that the logic of habit and the creation of new routines of interactions are the crucial missing piece in this puzzle. New routines reduced uncertainty about intentions of former enemies and created automatic responses when addressing conflictive issues. Routinisation can explain why we indeed saw new practices among Western Balkan elites without inadvertent internalisation of new norms. This article thus adds to theoretical debates on peaceful change, Europeanisation, socialisation and norm internalisation. To support my argument, I conducted twenty-six semi-structured interviews with Western Balkan elites that were used to understand the role of socialisation and routinisation in their political relations.
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Notes
Interestingly, father of realism E.H. Carr offered a synthetic mechanism of peaceful change, not a purely realist one.
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List of interviews
Albanian analyst, Tirana, 3/9/2018
Albanian former Deputy Minister of Defence, interviewed via email
Albanian NGO member, Tirana, 3/9/2018
Albanian opposition politician, Tirana, 4/09/2018
Albanian politician, Tirana, 5/9/2018
Bosnian former director of Directorate for European Integration, Sarajevo, 6/6/2018
Bosnian politician, Sarajevo, 5/6/2018
Bosnian politician no.2, Sarajevo, 7/6/2018
Bosnian NGO member, Sarajevo, 7/6/2018
Croatian former member of the Ministry of Defence, interviewed via Skype 12/5/2018
Croatian former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zagreb, 11/6/2018
Croatian former Minister of Foreign Affairs no.2, Zagreb, 12/6/2018
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, Skopje, 13/12/2018
Director of MARRI, Skopje, 13/12/2018
Former Deputy Chair of RCC, Belgrade, 1/11/2018
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Belgrade, 23/10/2018
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia no.2, Belgrade, 21/10/2018
Montenegrin former member Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Podgorica, 13/09/2018
Montenegrin former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Podgorica, 14/09/2018
Montenegrin politician, interviewed via email
Political director for regional cooperation, MFA of North Macedonia, Skopje, 10/12/2018
Political director of RCC, Sarajevo, 6/6/2018
Senior Serbian diplomat, Belgrade, 24/10/2018
Senior diplomat from North Macedonia, Skopje, 13/12/2018
Senior diplomat from North Macedonia, Skopje, 11/12/2018
Senior member of North Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Skopje, 12/12/2018
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank two anonymous reviewers and editors for their excellent comments; my Ph.D. supervisor Ondřej Ditrych for guiding me through field research and through development of the theoretical framework this article stands on; and Philippe Beauregard for his willingness to read numerous drafts of this paper and to provide helpful suggestions every time. Writing of this article was supported by a grant UNCE/HUM/009.
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Kulkova, M. ‘We speak over the phone almost dailyʼ: routinisation as an overlooked source of pacification in the Western Balkans. J Int Relat Dev 26, 111–130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-022-00281-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-022-00281-z