European Studies and European Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (ESAANZ) present

Serbia’s Foreign Policy after Kosovo’s Proclamation of Independence: Understanding Belgrade’s “sanctions standoff” with the EU

Jovica Pavlović (Institute of European Studies, Belgrade)

Abstract

Since Kosovo’s proclamation of independence in 2008, Serbia has sought to continue with the EU integration process which had begun in around 2000 after the overthrow of the Milošević regime. This was despite the fact that most EU member states recognized Kosovo as an independent country. At the same time, Serbia sought to stall further international recognition of Kosovo by strengthening its alliance with Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council. The prospect of achieving both objectives became unfeasible after the European Union implemented restrictive measures against Russia in 2022, in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Yet Serbia hasn’t officially given up on the goal of strengthening its political and economic ties to Russia, nor has it decided to formally terminate accession negotiations with the EU. Thus, it refuses to align its foreign policy with the EU, while remaining a candidate country. The aim of the presentation is understand why Serbia chooses to maintain such a contradictory foreign policy by examining the internal and external factors at play. The speaker will identify key actors and their main political strategies, as well as the projected outcomes/benefits of those strategies. The hope is to provide the audience with a deeper understanding of Serbia’s geopolitical position, but also with a sufficient grasp of its domestic political landscape.

About the speaker

Jovica Pavlović (PhD) is a political scientist and a research assistant at the Belgrade Institute of European Studies. His research is mainly dedicated to normative political theory and the ethics of secession, and he also studies the subjects of media freedom and Serbia-EU relations. During this time, I also cooperated (and continue to cooperate) with several Belgrade-based research-oriented NGOs, such as the Center for Applied European Studies, where I perform the role of a researcher in various projects. He is currently participating in a research project on the cultural transfer between Serbia and Europe from the 19^th to the 21^st Century at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade, the Institute of European Studies, the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade (funded by the IDEAS Program of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia), and “Media Pluralism Monitor 2022 (MPM2022)”, carried out by the Florence Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom of the European University Institute (funded by the European Union).

Join online via Zoom

Note: this is a hybrid event – see ‘Location’ section for on-campus venue

For more information, contact: Professor Peter Morgan (peter.morgan@sydney.edu.au)

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