Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Kosovo Macedonia Montenegro Serbia

Balkans

ICG's work in the Balkans presently spans projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia, with watching briefs kept on Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro, where the risk of conflict has decreased but not disappeared. A team of policy analysts are stationed in the region, with the overall Program Director based at ICG's headquarters in Brussels. Since beginning work in Bosnia in February 1996, ICG has built up a sound track record in the Balkans, being seen as an independent voice and source of influential new policy ideas.

The Balkans remains an area of critical strategic interest to Western governments and a potential flash point for further conflicts. The region's problems are complex, deeply rooted and unlikely to be resolved without sustained attention and involvement on the part of the international community. For these reasons, ICG will maintain a sizeable presence in the Balkans for the foreseeable future.

Within the region, ICG will continue to focus on the evolution of events in the individual entities, assessing their significance, inter-relationship and wider impact, but will also explore a number of thematic issues going to the structure and future stability of the whole region.

In those states and entities where we have a full-time presence, our priorities are as follows:

Bosnia: The Dayton framework; refugee return; the economy and the need for accelerated economic and structural reform; foreign aid; political change in Republika Srpska; organised crime and corruption.

Kosovo: The evolution of the peace process and Kosovo's legal status; shifts in the ethnic Albanian political scene; the security situation; reconstruction; and the efforts of the UN administration in the province to establish local self-government.

Serbia: The challenges facing the Serbian authorities; the development of independent media and civil society; institutional and economic reform and tackling corruption.

Many of our reports on the region have been translated into Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. The reports that have been translated are set out below.

Articles, op. eds, speeches and media releases can be found under the media section.

Recent reports & briefings
Building Bridges in Mostar, Europe Report N°150, 20 November 2003 Macedonia: No Time for Complacency, Europe Report N°149, 23 October 2003 Dy në Tango: Agjendë për PSSP në Kosovë, Raporti i Raporti i Evropës N°148, 03 September 2003 Two to Tango: An Agenda for the New Kosovo SRSG, report, 03 September 2003 Bosnia's Nationalist Governments: Paddy Ashdown and the Paradoxes of State Building, report, 22 July 2003 Nacionalistièke vlade Bosne i Hercegovine: Paddy Ashdown i paradoks izgradnje države, report, 22 July 2003 Reforma u Srbiji Ponovo Zakoèena, report, 17 July 2003 Serbian Reform Stalls Again, Balkans Report N°145, 17 July 2003 Thessaloniki and After I: The EU’s Balkan Agenda, briefing, 20 June 2003 Thessaloniki and After II: The EU and Bosnia, briefing, 20 June 2003 Thessaloniki and After III: The EU and Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, briefing, 20 June 2003 Brčko Distrikt Bosne i Hercegovine: Početak, napredak i povlaèenje, report, 02 June 2003 Bosnia's Brcko: Getting In, Getting On and Getting Out, report, 02 June 2003 Kosovo’s Ethnic Dilemma: The Need for a Civic Contract, Balkans Report N°143, 28 May 2003 Etnièka Dilema Kosova: Potreba za Graðanskim Ugovorom, Balkans Report N°143, 28 May 2003 Dilema Etnike e Kosovës: Nevoja Për Kontratë Civile, Balkans Report N°143, 28 May 2003 A Marriage of Inconvenience: Montenegro 2003, report, 16 April 2003 Serbia After Djindjic, Balkans Report N°141, 18 March 2003 Albania: State of the Nation 2003, report, 11 March 2003 The Continuing Challenge Of Refugee Return In Bosnia & Herzegovina, report, 13 December 2002