Milada Anna Vachudova, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North  Carolina

EU Leverage and National Interests in the Balkans: The Puzzles of Enlargement Ten Years On

Description:  European Union enlargement continues in the Western Balkans in the 2010s, in part because the risk of instability in the region has made the dividends from the EU’s ‘democratizing effect’ especially substantial. Some political leaders in Western Balkans states are responding to the incentives of EU membership, but others are not, making the success of the EU's leverage uneven.  Vachudova has published widely on democratization and political change in postcommunist Europe.  She is the author of the award-winning Europe Undivided: Democracy, Leverage and Integration After Communism (Oxford University Press).

Sponsored by the Moynihan European Research Centers at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs