Kosovo Divided. Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Struggle for a State

What is it about?

Given the recent revival of nationalism in many parts of the world in tandem with new conflicts and forms of interventionism, this book uses the case of Kosovo to discuss some of key problems around contemporary practices of state-building. Based on exhaustive research and fieldwork, Marius Calu investigates how the management of plurality is a fundamental element of contemporary state-building seeking to build social cohesion, while for the new-born Kosovo it stands as vital symbol for its domestic sovereignty and legitimisation. With the aim of understanding why and in what ways the management of diversity has become a central element of state-building in post-conflict Kosovo, this study juxtaposes the de jure multi-ethnic liberal democratic form of governance with the de facto results and consequences of Kosovo's task to protect, accommodate and integrate its ethnic minorities.

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Photo by Sandro Schuh on Unsplash

Photo by Sandro Schuh on Unsplash

Why is it important?

“By exposing the unintended consequences of the internationally engineered management of diversity that both weakened the state and hampered integration of minorities in post-conflict Kosovo, Calu makes a crucial and indispensable argument for examining the fatal gap between state-building templates and state-building practices.” – Professor Anna Di Lellio, New York University, USA “Marius Calu's empirically rich and theoretically robust analysis is a fascinating, and original contribution. By highlighting how the ambitious aspirations of liberal state-building floundered when implemented in Kosovo, Calu demonstrates that externally contrived policies designed to facilitate plurality and multi-ethnic harmony, had a series of unintended negative consequences. The book's findings have great relevance beyond Kosovo and should be read by all those interested in managing divergent identities within the modern state.” – Dr Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster, UK “This valuable work carefully analyses the gap between the rhetoric and practice of building a multi-ethnic Kosovo. Importantly, it goes beyond the Serbian community and considers other often overlooked groups, such as Roma, Ashkali and Bosniaks. This makes it a particularly welcome contribution to our understanding of contemporary Kosovo.” – Professor James Ker-Lindsay, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK