Southeast Europe and Balkan Studies – Birgül Demirtaş

  • Eğitmen: Birgül Demirtaş
  • Dersin Verildiği Okul: Medipol Üniversitesi
  • Medipol Üniversitesi Ders Kodu: INT 411127

Ders İzlencesi (PDF)

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Aim of The Course

This course will focus on the historical processes and contemporary issues in the Balkans. It has three basic aims. First of all, it aims to analyse the historical developments in the Balkan region. Second, it covers the contemporary security challenges, political and economic issues in the Balkan countries as well as examines the roles of the external actors in the region, like the European Union, Russia and China. Third, it sheds light on the importance of the Balkan region in Turkish foreign policy. The region of the Balkans has played an important role in global politics since the 19th century. In the contemporary era, the wars of Yugoslav succession led to the emergence of ethnic animosities and religious polarisation. The post-conflict Balkans still keeps the traces of the wars of the 1990’s. The course will cover the Western Balkans as well as EU member Balkan states. It will analyse both historical developments and contemporary challenges in those countries.

Evaluation

All students are expected to attend online classes and take an active part in class discussions. There are reading assignments for each week. You should read the weekly assignments before coming to online classes. Active participation will consist of 10 % of the grade. Active participation means reading the weekly assignments each week and contributing to class discussions regularly. Active participation is more than class attendance. Any kind of plagiarism and cheating will lead to the final grade of “FF”.

 

The evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

Active Participation
10%
Midterm
40%
Final
50%

Recommended Books

  • Murat Necip Arman-Nazif Mandacı (eds.), Çağdaş Balkan Siyaseti, Ankara, Seçkin, 2014.
  • Misha Glenny, Balkanlar 1804-1999 Milliyetçilik, Savaş ve Büyük Güçler, trans. by Mehmet Harmancı, İstanbul, 2001. (The original book is in English)
  • Şaban Çalış-Birgül Demirtaş (eds.), Balkanlar’da Siyaset, Eskişehir, Anadolu Üni., 2012.
  • Osman Karatay – Bilgehan A. Gökdağ (eds.), Balkanlar El Kitabı, Cilt I: Tarih, Çorum, Karam-Vadi, 2006.
  • Osman Karatay – Bilgehan A. Gökdağ (eds.), Balkanlar El Kitabı, Cilt II: Çağdaş Balkanlar, Çorum, Karam-Vadi, 2007.
  • Tanıl Bora, Yugoslavya, Milliyetçiliğin Provokasyonu, İstanbul, Birikim, 1995.
  • Tanıl Bora, Bosna-Hersek, Yeni Dünya Düzeni’nin Av Sahası, İstanbul, Birikim, 1999.

Course Outline

Week 1: Introduction and general information about the course. Basic information about the Balkans

  • Barbara Jelavich, History of the Balkans, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Vol. I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 1-36.

Week 2: History of the concept of “Balkans” and “Southeast Europe”

  • Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, s. 3-37.

Week 3: Understanding the history of the Balkans and the Ottoman legacy

  • Andrew Baruch Wachtel, The Balkans in World History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, ss. 51-71.
  • Maria Todorova, “The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans,” Balkans A Mirror of the New International Order, Günay Göksu Özdoğan ve Kemali Saybaşılı (der.), İstanbul, Eren, 1995, ss. 55-74.

Week 4: Independence process of the Balkan countries

  • Andrew Baruch Wachtel, The Balkans in World History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, ss.72-96.

Week 5: Formation of nation states and Cold War period

  • Andrew Baruch Wachtel, The Balkans in World History, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, ss. 97-125.

Week 6: Balkans after the end of the Cold War  I – Wars in Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia

  • Sabrina Petra Ramet, Balkan Babel, 2nd ed., Boulder, Westview Press, 1996, ss. 37-59.
  • Noel Malcolm, Bosnia, A Short History, New York, New York University Press, ss. 234-271.

Week 7: Balkans after the end of the Cold WarII–Kosovo War and the Albanian Question in the Balkans

  • Frances Trix, “Kosovar Albanians between a Rock and a Hard Place”, Serbia since 1989, Politics and Society under Milošević and After”, Sabrina P. Ramet and Vjeran Pavlaković”, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2005, ss. 309-349.
  • Recommended Reading: Birgül Demirtaş Coşkun, “Arnavutluk’un Dış Politikası ve Balkanlar’da Arnavut Sorunu”, Ömer Engin Lütem – Birgül Demirtaş Coşkun (eds.), Balkan Diplomasisi, Ankara, ASAM, 2001.

Week 8: Authoritarian tendencies and security challenges in post-conflict Balkans

  • Florian Bieber, “Patterns of competitive authoritarianism in the Western Balkans”, East European Politics, Vol 34, No 3, 2018, p. 337-354.
  • Birgül Demirtaş, “Balkanlar’da güvenlik meseleleri”, Şaban Çalış-Birgül Demirtaş (der.), Balkanlar’da Siyaset, Eskişehir, Anadolu Üni, 2014, p. 212-218.

Week 9: European Union and the Balkans

Week 10: Bulgarian and Romanian Membership to the EU

  • David Phinnemore, “And we would like to thank… Romania’s Integration into the EU, 1989-2007”, European Integration, Vol 32, No 3, 2010, p. 291-308.
  • David Phinnemore, “From Negotiations to Accession: Lessons from the 2007 Enlargement”, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Vol. 10, No. 2, June 2009, pp. 240-252.

Week 11: Migration crisis and EU’s relations with regional countries

  • Jonathan Zaragoza-Cristiani, “Containing the Refugee Crisis: How the EU Turned the Balkans and Turkey into an EU Borderland”, The International Spectator, Vol. 52, No 4, 2017.

Week 12: Turkey and the Balkans

  • Olaylarla Türk Dış Politikası, Cilt 1 (1919-1973), Ankara, Ankara Üniversitesi, Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Yayınları, 1982, ss. 550-556.
  • Birgül Demirtaş, “Turkish Foreign Policy toward the Balkan Neighborhood: A Europeanized Foreign Policy in a De-europeanized National Context?”, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2015, ss. 123-140.
  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, “From myth to reality: How to understand Turkey’s role in the Western Balkans”, ECFR Policy Brief, March 2019 (Online Source)

Week 13: Russia, China and Balkans

  • Mark Galeotti, “Do The Western Balkans Face a Coming Russian Storm?”, ECFR Policy Brief, April 2018. (Online Source)
  • Plamen Tonchev, “China’s Road: into the Western Balkans”, EU Institute for Security Studies, February 2017. (Online Source)

Week 14: Review

Prof. Dr. Birgül Demirtaş, Türk-Alman Üniversitesi öğretim üyesi. Lisans eğitimini Boğaziçi, yüksek lisans eğitimini Bilkent, doktorasını Berlin Hür Üniversitesi’nde tamamladı. Türk dış politikası, Alman dış politikası, Balkanlar, yerel diplomasi ve akademide toplumsal cinsiyet konularında çalışmaktadır.