Conflict Management Vs. Strategic Capacity Building: A Comparative Analysis of EU and Turkish Approaches to Kosovo

Although the current international system is organized around internationally recognized states, there is an increasing number of actors with debatable status in terms of recognition. The proliferation of defacto states and contested territories poses a fundamental challenge to the European security architecture today. The European Union’s (EU) response to this phenomenon is identified as “engagement without recognition”. This concept was originally formulated by the EU in the form of “non-recognition and engagement” in 2009 and was later rephrased as “engagement without recognition”, directing the policy’s priority toward the willingness to engage with contested territories. The EU’s policy is most visible today regarding Kosovo, which mainly relies on diplomatic normalization between Kosovo and Serbia, as seen in the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue. This research shows that the EU’s approach towards contested territories and defacto states in general and Kosovo in particular does not represent a universal understanding in the European framework. In contrast to the EU’s focus on conflict resolution, Turkey pursues a security-oritented approach, engaging in proactive security and defense capacity-building in Kosovo as well as diplomatic lobbying to consolidate its de jure independence. In light of Turkey’s policy towards Kosovo, this paper discusses the divergence between normative approaches and pragmatic regional strategies towards contested territories in Europe. It demonstrates that non-EU actors are increasingly rehaping the current European security architecture.