Serbias Balancing Act: Between Russia and the West

(Hardback)

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The central country in the Western Balkans, Serbia puzzles observers by balancing its domestic and foreign policy between two competing great powers - Russia and the West. What drives a small country to behave like this In this book, Vuk Vuksanovic explores the strategic trends which have shaped Serbian foreign policy, beginning in 2008, when the countrys international position was permanently changed by the global financial crisis and the unilateral declaration of independence by Serbias former province Kosovo. Since then, this small Balkan country has become a tipping point between two external great powers against each other. Demonstrating how this, and other major international developments have affected the countrys stance towards these great powers, including the Russian annexation of Crimea, Brexit, the migrant crisis, the rise and fall of Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic and the on-going war in Ukraine, Vuksanovic reveals how Serbia has placed itself at the centre of a deeply opportunistic and precariously balanced partnership, which impacts both its domestic and international policy in a multitude of ways.

Author Bio

Vuk Vuksanovic is a Senior Researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Serbia, and an associate at LSE IDEAS, a foreign policy think-tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK.