New Majorities and Minorities in the Changing Balkans
New Majorities and Minorities in the Changing Balkans

Author(s): Livia Plaks
Subject(s): Governance, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: PER Project on Ethnic Relations
Keywords: interethnic relations in the Balkans; interethnic government; multiethnic Kosovo; mother-countries and diasporas;
Summary/Abstract: During the last decade in the Balkans new interethnic dynamics have been created by various regional settlements. Many of these settlements not only changed the dynamics but created new ethnic ma-jorities and minorities. Overnight former ethnic minorities became majorities. This new set of circum-stances requires changes in the way these societies are governed. This is especially true for Kosovo, the status of which the international community is determined to resolve in 2007. These factors and the timing prompted the Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) to organize in cooperation with the Hungari-an Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the support of the U.S. State Department through a USAID grant, in Budapest on December 2-3, 2006, a regional roundtable of political leaders from Southeastern Europe. This regional roundtable discussion, the eighth such endeavor organized by PER between 2000-2006 was titled New Majorities and Minorities in the Changing Balkans. The meeting brought to-gether political leaders, decision-makers and officials from the region, the U.S. State Department, the European Union, the Council of Europe, and OSCE to discuss the changing dynamics of interethnic rela-tions in the area as the international community prepares to resolve the issue of Kosovo’s status. One of the main purposes of the roundtable was to encourage the region’s policy makers to think construc-tively about the new reality that is being created in the region during the last decade by various Balkan settlements and about changes in policies that this new reality requires.

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