Conclusions: Building on Regional Trends to Develop New Mechanisms for Political Change

Abstract

This book steps out of the beaten path of a much discussed topic on how states in the Western Balkans can advance on the path to EU integration, despite a stalled political development and deep Euro crisis. It serves as a litmus test for the old patterns of political and social behavior in the Western Balkans and for the new patterns of change that emerge from within the region because of and despite the existing local and international institutions. The book attests to the need to look at the region beyond formal institutional arrangements, and to understand trends that are entrenched or organically emerge from within populations. It would be exaggerated to say that this book is about people’s power, since the populations discussed here have not been captured in vigorous action, despite some protests more recently in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The book deploys its strengths by detecting the ideational, political, social and cultural signs of long-term healing from the wounds of the 1990s Yugoslavia wars, embedded in enduring political realities and seeking their ways to be channeled better into everyday life.