Stabilization and Progress in the Western Balkans

For more than a decade, the Balkans have been a centre of crisis – armed conflicts have brought death, expulsion, destruction and untold suffering to the people. The postwar efforts of the West have failed to bring lasting stability and real progress so far.
The Symposium at Basel University was an interdisciplinary event where complex issues were elucidated by historians, geographers, sociologists and political scientists. The event enabled East and West European scholars and their American counterparts to exchange their somewhat divergent views. The speakers covered a broad range of subjects: historical causes, aspects of postwar economic and social development as well as sociocultural consequences of the democratization process. Special attention was devoted to the situation of minorities, the refugee problem and the security situation in the fragile states of the West Balkans and also to the responsibility of the EU and USA for the general stagnation in the area.
The Symposium was intended to illustrate differing interpretations of the events of the past ten years and to encourage discussion between speakers and participants at the event.

Dušan Šimko is Assistant Professor of Political and Social Geography at the University of Basel. His main field of research since 1989 has been the analysis of the long-term crisis in the Southeast Europe and the stabilization and democratization of the post-war societies in the Western Balkans.
Ueli Mäder is Professor of Sociology at the University of Basel, responsible for the Institute of Sociology. He was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and the leader of five Swiss National Science Foundation studies. He is in charge of an interdisciplinary advanced studies diploma (Nachdiplom) in conflict research and conflict resolution. His major research interests are development sociology, political sociology and social policy. Ueli Mäder has over 20 years of experience in research and teaching sociological and political aspects of development, poverty and conflict.