To build a state: Europeanization, EU actorness and state-building in Kosovo

Abstract:

This article discusses the limits of the European Union’s role as a state-builder in Kosovo following the NATO intervention in 1999. It builds on the conceptual literature on Europeanization, EU actorness and conditionality to explore the EU’s multifaceted presence in the area and its ability to shape Kosovo’s emerging statehood. In doing so the article explores the way in which the EU strategy on the ground has been conditioned by: (a) the multiplicity of EU institutions and agencies that currently engage in the process of state-building in Kosovo; (b) the presence of other powerful actors – namely NATO and the UN - with their own stakes and agendas in the area; and c) local constellations of power and particularly Kosovo’s political elites as these have been shaped by the conflict of the late 1990s and its aftermath. Hence, the article studies, in a theoretically informed manner, the ongoing international efforts to build Europe’s newest ‘state-in-waiting’ and sheds light on an integral part of the European Union’s enlargement strategy in the Western Balkans.