MetaKosovo: Local and International Narratives

Musliu, Vjosa; Orbie, Jan

doi:10.1111/1467-856x.12069

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It is thus an essential and prominent conduit to understanding collectives’ actions and how they are intertwined into shared experiences and narrated. Accordingly, it is not the historical events per se that interest memory researchers, but rather how groups comprehend, appropriate, and re-tell specific events to enhance collective cohesiveness and inform collective behaviour (Musliu and Orbie, 2016). Since collective memory is a fundamental element in the reproduction and contestation of collective identities (Brewer and Hayes, 2015), it is, inter alia, a political tool that can be used to explain the present and shape the future (Liu and Hilton, 2005; Schuman and Rieger, 1992) and to further political aims (Azpíroz, 2013; Tileagă, 2012).…”

Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juggling identities: Identification, collective memory, and practices of self-presentation in the United Nations General Debate

Adams

Mitrani

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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The concept of collective memory receives increasing attention in international relations. This burgeoning scholarship, however, mainly centres on its role as a strategic tool in foreign policy, binding it to national context. This research uses collective memory as an analytical framework to gauge identification processes at the international level. Specifically, we examine how states self-present themselves with various collective We’s and against multiple others. Contingent upon exclusive biographical narratives, we show how states transform and present collective memories in ways that resonate with their particular identity combination. Using inductive comparative analysis of speeches delivered by heads of state of Germany, the United States, and Israel during United Nations General Assembly sessions (1991–2017), analysis demonstrates how states evoke the past to narrate who they are, as states. Expanding understanding regarding how historical events are utilised in foreign policy, findings illustrate the dynamic juggling process states perform with various elements of self.

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Section: Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juggling identities: Identification, collective memory, and practices of self-presentation in the United Nations General Debate

Adams

Mitrani

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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“…The formal and practical marginalisation of these two 'micro-minorities' (Juon, 2020) places them at the very bottom, if not outside, of Kosovo's hierarchical multi-ethnic social and legal structure (Calu, 2020;Krasniqi, 2015). From this perspective, Croats and Montenegrins are the most 'insignificant others' (Musliu & Orbie, 2015) among the non-dominant minorities in Kosovo. Consequently, it is much less straightforward to unravel the securitising effects of Kosovo's instruments and discourses around multi-ethnic governance on these communities.…”

Section: The Montenegrin and Croat Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Dominant Groups in Kosovo: A Marginalised View on (De)Securitisation of Minorities After Conflict

Calu¹

2021

JEMIE

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Drawing on case studies and in-depth analysis of ethnic minorities in Kosovo against the backdrop of statebuilding since 1999, this article discusses how the securitisation and desecuritisation of minorities after conflict is particularly problematic when seen from the marginalised perspective of non-dominant groups. I therefore argue that the adoption of a multi-ethnic statebuilding model of governance, including consociational power-sharing arrangements, has triggered unintended consequences for the (de)securitisation of minorities in Kosovo. Among such consequences is the risk of perceiving all minorities as potential threats and approaching minority issues merely through the lenses of security. By exploring various social, economic, legal, political, and identity characteristics of non-dominant communities in Kosovo and drawing on personal interviews with key stakeholders, representatives, and members of minority communities, this article shows the need for a more inclusive understanding of security which stretches beyond the threat of physical violence. This would permit, among other things, a more effective approach to dealing with the different layers of securitisation of minorities identified here. Otherwise, minority rights and concerns cannot escape the straitjacket of emergency politics. In conclusion, the long-term risk of managing multi-ethnicity through one-size-fits-all approaches is that statebuilding in plural societies will always struggle to desecuritise minority rights and develop ‘normal’ politics of diversity.

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“…This section describes Vetevendosje as an example illustrating how this framing of Kosovo as a "state of communities" failed to resonate with pre-existing local narratives and discourses about Kosovo, and in fact generated a fertile ground for a thorough critique of the new state as illegitimate. There was a profound mismatch between the local and international projects being pursued in Kosovo, as evidenced by the disconnect between their views on Kosovo's multiethnic character (Musliu and Orbie 2016). The majority of Kosovo-Albanians perceive the 1999 war and the post-conflict decade as part of a longer term political process of national liberation leading to their independence.…”

Section: Unintended Outcome: An Additional Internal Legitimation Chalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The quest for legitimacy in independent Kosovo: the unfulfilled promise of diversity and minority rights

Landau¹

2017

Natl. pap.

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When Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, it did so not as a nation-state, but as a “state of communities,” self-defining as multiethnic, diverse, and committed to extensive rights for minorities. In this paper, this choice is understood as a response to a dual legitimation problem. Kosovo experienced both an external legitimation challenge, regarding its contested statehood internationally, and an internal one, vis-à-vis its Serb minority. The focus on diversity and minority rights was expected to confer legitimacy on the state both externally and internally. International state-builders and the domestic political elite in post-conflict Kosovo both pursued this strategy. However, it inadvertently created an additional internal legitimation challenge, this time from within Kosovo's majority Albanian population. This dynamic is illustrated by the opposition movement “Lëvizja Vetëvendosje” (Self-Determination Movement), which rejects the framing of Kosovo as first and foremost a multiethnic state. The movement's counter-narrative represents an additional internal legitimation challenge to the new state. This paper thus finds that internationally endorsed “diversity management” through minority rights did not deliver as a panacea for the legitimacy dilemmas of the post-conflict polity. On the contrary, the “state of communities” continues to be contested by both majority and minority groups in Kosovo.

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MetaKosovo: Local and International Narratives

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Juggling identities: Identification, collective memory, and practices of self-presentation in the United Nations General Debate

Juggling identities: Identification, collective memory, and practices of self-presentation in the United Nations General Debate

Non-Dominant Groups in Kosovo: A Marginalised View on (De)Securitisation of Minorities After Conflict

The quest for legitimacy in independent Kosovo: the unfulfilled promise of diversity and minority rights

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