28 years after the Dayton Accords were signed, the Western Balkans are inching closer than ever to a return to the political violence, ethnic cleansing, and mass migration that plagued the region following the dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation. Policymakers in Brussels and Washington, who once played a pivotal role in brokering and implementing peace deals in the Balkans, have had their attention diverted to new and looming crises, from Ukraine to Taiwan.
For that reason, the New Lines Institute is pleased to be launching the Western Balkans Observatory, a new initiative to provide rigorous, non-partisan analysis for policymakers on the Western Balkans, and to fill the void in policy-oriented research on the region. This launch event will coincide with the publication of our first multiauthor report, covering the rise of the far right in the Balkans, the influence of Russia and Turkey in the region’s politics, and the rapidly declining security situation between Serbia and Kosovo, among other topics.
This panel event will feature two of the report’s authors in conversation with Professor Tanya Domi, a Senior Nonresident Fellow at the Institute who lectures at Columbia University and brings extensive academic and government experience working on the Balkans. For those joining in person, a light lunch will be served after the event.
The panel will feature:
- Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, OBE, Opening Remarks – Senior Director, New Lines Institute
- Prof. Tanya Domi, Moderator – Columbia University, Professor on Human Rights in the Balkans
- Reuf Bajrović, Panelist – Foreign Policy Research Institute, Fellow
- Ivana Stradner, Panelist – Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Research Fellow
- Dr. Daniel Serwer - Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Senior Fellow, SAIS Foreign Policy Institute
