About The Blog

Introduction

After the Yugoslav Wars and genocides that took place from 1991 to 2001, the Western Balkan region now faces the difficult task of having to not only rebuild their economy and infrastructure, but also to rebuild trust and cooperation within the citizens to prevent the resurgence of another war. Without proper support from the EU, this has placed the countries of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia vulnerable to foreign influence, as they become heavily dependent on foreign aid for the resources needed to repair their country. We have observed that there seems to be a dominant trend where there are differences in the perceptions and views of external actors.  We argue that there exists mutual misunderstanding of expectations and views between local stakeholders and external benefactors about the best way to engage in the region’s socio-economic development and reconciliation. We believe that this mismatch in perceptions has resulted in problems to the region, increasing friction and hindering any progress made in the region.

In this blog, we will be covering and analysing  the perceptions of various different parties involved in the Western Balkan Region, based on the information we gathered during our trip to Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, since that our information is based mostly on information gathered in the region of Bosnia & Herzegovina, so it may not perfectly represent a complete or neutral view of the situation.

​

Written by Tiffany Tan