000			01860nam a2200169Ia 4500
005			20250728154344.0
008			250728s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9781848850958
082			_a949.6504 _bPET
100			_aPettifer, James
245		4	_aThe Albanian Question
260			_bI. B. Tauris _c2009
300			_a288 pages
500			_aKosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008 -- and the overt manipulation of this precedent by Russia in its war with Georgia and South Ossetia shortly afterwards -- has focused the world’s attention once again on the Balkans. But Albania’s role within the region remains little known and less understood. In this revised edition of a major work of contemporary history, two well-known and internationally-respected authorities elucidate Albania's place in the Balkans, from the explosion of violence in the 1990s, which brought the country to the brink of civil war, to the present day. Since 1997, the Albanian region has been forced simultaneously to come to terms with the realities of a post-Communist world and the threat of Slobodan Milosevic’s ‘Greater Serbia’ project. Its people, the authors argue, are involved in the process of national self-emancipation: the re-establishment of free markets and ending of Communist border controls have renewed long dormant cultural and economic links between the Albanian people and the wider region. The future of the Albanians in the Balkans is the most pressing issue in the region today, a fact which the West must pay close heed to if this long neglected nation is to become a European partner. Indeed, the authors argue, in this rapidly evolving political climate, failure to come to terms with the importance of the Albanian question could return the region as a whole to armed conflict.
650			_aPolitical Science
942			_cENGLISH
999			_c577816 _d577816