Book Description
The vision of a Europe "whole, free, and at peace" has been a fundamental tenet of U.S. foreign policy. In its earlier manifestation, U.S. and EU policy concentrated on the political and economic liberalization and transformation of Central and Eastern Europe. However, for most Western Balkan countries, the goal of full European integration is yet to be achieved. Unfortunately, despite a significant amount of Western investment in the Western Balkans, there is no politically unifying vision among the elite and civil society to maintain sufficient reform momentum for rapid transformation. Moreover, traditional reform tools, even on a very large scale, such as the EU Rule of Law (EULEX) mission in Kosovo, were unable to achieve desired institutional and integration success. Transatlantic policy toward the Western Balkans appears to be a "perfect storm" of outdated policies that are out of sync with the region, ineffectual policy tools, and of waning policy interest. Therefore, it is time to examine potential new drivers of reform that emanate from within the region. One such driver is cross-border cooperation.
