Introduction

The democratization and reconciliation of post-Yugoslavia has received a substantial amount of attention from the academic and policy communities. From the academic perspective, the Western Balkans has been an important testing ground for theories of various disciplines. The post-socialist and post-communist transformations of the region has received the attention of scholars from democratic theory, nationalism, transitional justice, minority studies, European integration, and international humanitarian intervention, just to name a few. From the policy community, the region has been the recipient of major sources of aid and has even been a testing ground for a number of newly devised tools for change. Yet, despite its academic and policy relevance, students studying the region do not have a single source of reading material where to learn about the various challenges facing the region and the various alternative policies devised by local policy-makers and the international community. This textbook aims to serve a wide array of college students and become a go-to source in the study contemporary socio-political challenges facing the region.