Stabilizing and Integrating the Balkans

The United States and Europe are facing new economic and political challenges in the 21st century. The series looks into technological, economic and political dynamics and tries to identify key problems for transatlantic cooperation and competition, including the field of the New Economy. Institutional reforms, structural changes, entrepreneurial developments and political shifts will be critically evaluated.

Professor Paul Welfens offers a unique and timely approach to the major task of stabilizing and integrating the Balkans. His book is one of the first to assess in depth the progress of reconstruction and to evaluate the success of coordination on the part of various Western governments and international organizations. Professor Welfens sees an intimate connection, in the sense of equal responsibility, between internal reform, restructuring, and revitalization in the region and Western financing, ideas, and programs. Professor Welfens has coined the term "networked approach" to capture the strategy of Western cooperation among multiple actors, particularly through the mechanism of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. In addition to demonstrating where the Stability Pact works well, he identifies problem areas, with respect to both inconsistencies in donor policies and coordination and significant structural variations among Balkan countries and entities. He also flags concerns about EU enlargement overstretch. This book has emerged from a bi-national, cross-disciplinary research project at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies on "Cooperation and Competition: American, European Union, and German Policies in the Balkans" that explores the opportunities and obstacles regarding cooperation in the political, economic and military realms. The project - financed by a grant from the DaimlerChrysler-Fonds im Stifterverband fur die Deutsche Wissenschaft examines the implications of lessons learned in the Balkans for transatlantic relations, an area Professor Welfens discusses with some concern about potential conflicts. Additional individual and collective products from the AICGS research project will be forthcoming during 2001.

Critical in-depth analysis of the status quo of the international Balkan policy Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Auteur
Paul J. J. Welfens, geb. 1957 in Düren, Studium der Volkswirtschaftslehre in Wuppertal, Duisburg und Paris, Promotion 1985, Habilitation1989. Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Volkswirtschaftslehre - Schwerpunkt Makroökonomische Theorie und Politik an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal; Präsident des Europäischen Instituts für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen (EIIW); Jean-Monnet-Professor für Europäische Wirtschaftsintegration; zuvor Distinguished Research Fellow am AICGS/The Johns Hopkins University, Professor an der Universität Münster bzw. Potsdam, Visiting Alfred Grosser Professor Sciences Po, Paris.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. The End of the Kosovo War.- 2.1 Western European Problems at the Beginning of the 21st Century.- 2.2 Eastern Enlargement of NATO and the Stability Pact.- 3. Initial Situation and Post-Kosovo War Problems.- 3.1 Legacy of the Socialist Past and Basic Data.- 3.2 The Stability Pact and the Stabilization and Association Process.- 3.3 Strategic Economic Issues.- 3.4 Donor Financing.- 3.5 Special Case of Yugoslavia.- 3.6 The Problem of Economic Catching-up.- Appendix : Growth and Convergence in Open Economies.- 4. Stabilization of the Balkans: Stability Pact, Actors and Programs.- 4.1 International Actors: EBRD, World Bank, IMF.- 4.2 The European Union.- 4.3 Criticism of the European Union.- 4.4 Selected National Actors: The United States and Germany.- 5. Trade, Integration and Cooperation.- 5.1 Expanding the Existing Trade Network.- 5.2 Splitting-Up, Shadow Economic Growth, Integration and Globalization.- 5.3 Prospects for Economic Convergence.- 5.4 Transatlantic Cooperation and Policy Options.- 5.5 Forced EU Entry and EU Integration Overstretch.- 5.6 Potential Reforms.- 5.7 Big Business and International Organizations.- 6. Conclusions and Strategic EU Reform Perspectives.- 6.1 Basic Conclusions.- 6.2 Foreign Policy Dominating the Treasury.- 6.3 Improving Cooperation Among Actors in the Stability Pact.- 6.4 Problems in Transatlantic Cooperation.- 6.5 Euro Aspects of Eastern and Southeastern Enlargement.- 6.6 Long-Term Perspectives.- Appendix 1: Trade Structure in the Balkans The Role of the EU and US.- Appendix 2: German Contribution to the Stability Pact.- Appendix 3: Experiences with Coordination from Bosnia-Herzegovina.- Appendix 4: Yugoslavia (Serbia / Montenegro).- Appendix 5 US Dollar Gross Wage Rates in Selected Transition Countries.- Appendix6: Theoretical Aspects of the Growth of the Shadow Economy.- Appendix 7: International Financial Loans, Infrastructure Investment and Growth.- Appendix 8: IMF Status of Fund Relations with the Region.- Appendix 9: Progress Report on the Implementation of the Quick Start Package (QSP).- References.- List of Tables.- List of Figures.