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Studying the Balkans: Theory and Method of Discourse Analysis

European Union
NATO
Policy Analysis
Methods
Post-Structuralism
Liridona Veliu
Dublin City University
Liridona Veliu
Dublin City University

Abstract

The long-tail of the balkanization discourse still lingers even as the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have shifted their attention from an “intervention” to an “integration” approach towards the Western Balkans. The enlargements of the EU and NATO are seen as beneficial for both, the Balkans as well as the EU and NATO countries, in bringing stability and security to the Western Balkan countries. The Balkans and balkanization on the other hand, are part of a long-standing discourse of identity construction of otherness and stereotyping whose application has moved beyond the formal boundaries of the region, and are now used to convey, among others: ambiguity, abstruseness, differences, barbarism, tribalism, underdevelopment, non-cooperativeness, political, economic and territorial disintegration, fragmentation, parcelization, instability, unreliability, dehumanization and devastation of civilization. Due to what the analysis has revealed by now, such identity and policy constellations are nods within a complex web of constitutive interactions which cannot be seen as fixed variables of analysis engaged in a causal correlation. In this paper, I elaborate on poststructuralist discourse theory as compatible with such a position, and hence foundational to choosing discourse analysis as a research method for my study. I use Lene Hansen’s (2006) elaborations on the theory and method of discourse analysis as a model of research methodology adapted to the frames of this project. By exposing how EU and NATO integration policies towards the Western Balkans continue to be underpinned by the balkanization discourse, the aim of my Ph.D. study is to produce recommendations for better Euro-Atlantic integration processes of the Western Balkans. This will further enable the comparison of discourses of difference and otherness across Europe and beyond, and their impact on political and economic stability.