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Gëzim Visoka

Dublin City University, School of Law and Government, Faculty Member

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Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University.

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University of Leeds

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

Nicolas Lemay-Hébert

The Australian National University

Dublin City University

Arizona State University

Daria Isachenko

Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik

Gëzim Krasniqi

University of Edinburgh

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Papers by Gëzim Visoka

Mapping Local Perspectives on Radicalization in Kosovo

by Gëzim Visoka and Adem Beha

CBM/KIP, 2021

Since the eruption of violent conflict in Syria and Iraq and the travelling of around 400 Kosovo ... more Since the eruption of violent conflict in Syria and Iraq and the travelling of around 400 Kosovo citizens to the region between 2012 and 2016, fear of radicalization and violent extremism became a prevalent issue in Kosovo. This attracted significant international attention which pushed the Government of Kosovo to take strong legal and punitive measures to counter violent extremism and prevent the rise of religious radicalization in the country. While extensive research is conducted in understanding the causes and dynamics of radicalization and violent extremism in Kosovo, mostly at the national level, less work is done in exploring the perspectives of local frontline actors on the prevalence of and response to this phenomenon at the municipal level. Drawing on interviews with local stakeholders across Kosovo, this study explores local perspectives on religious radicalization Kosovo. The study aims to map out the scope and meaning of religious radicalization that can potentially lead to violent extremism in Kosovo and explore the impact of existing policies and strategies for preventing and countering radicalization in the country. In particular, the study aims to understand the local sources of insecurity; stakeholders’ perception on violent extremism; functionality of municipal security mechanisms; and strategies for preventing and addressing radicalization at the communal level.

Peace-making: new technologies are no panacea

by Oliver P Richmond and Gëzim Visoka

Nature, 2021

PDF version For peace-making, artificial-intelligence and data-driven approaches (see, for exa... more PDF version

For peace-making, artificial-intelligence and data-driven approaches (see, for example, W. Guo et al. Nature 562, 331–333; 2018) should be viewed only as complements to the existing international architecture (see go.nature.com/3q13tpe). To predict and prevent war, political will and policy innovations are still necessary.

Kosovo 20 Years On: Implications for International Order

by Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka

The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 2020

Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving international order: the n... more Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving
international order: the norms and institutions that shape the behavior and practices of states and other international actors. In three controversial policy areas — humanitarian intervention, international peacebuilding, and international recognition — Kosovo has been the focus of events and debates with far-reaching and globally significant effects. This article will present and discuss these three subjects, and then conclude by considering how Kosovo’s future may continue to be tied to the shifting contours of international order in the context of renewed great power geopolitical rivalry.

Metis diplomacy: The everyday politics of becoming a sovereign state

How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international or... more How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international organizations in contemporary world politics? Using the concept of 'metis', this article explores the role of everyday prudent and situated discourses, diplomatic performances and entanglements in the enactment of sovereign statehood and the overcoming of external contestation. To this end, it describes Kosovo's diplomatic approach to becoming a sovereign state by obtaining international recognition and securing membership of international organizations. Drawing on institutional ethnographic research and first-hand observations, the article argues that Kosovo's success in consolidating its sovereign statehood has been the situational assemblage of multiple discourses, practiced through a broad variety of performative actions and shaped by a complex entanglement with global assemblages of norms, actors, relations and events. Accordingly, this study contributes to the conceptualization of the everyday in diplomatic practice by offering an account of how micro-practices feed into macro-practices in world politics.

Critique and Alternativity in International Relations

This article critically interrogates the episteme of alternativity in International Relations (IR... more This article critically interrogates the episteme of alternativity in International Relations (IR) to rethink the purpose of critical knowledge in global politics. It questions what critical knowledge is for and whose purpose it serves. While alternativity is the very condition which has given rise to critical approaches, there is a deep-rooted division among critical scholars on the relationship between criticality and alternativity. This article argues that alternativity provides an opportunity for critical scholars to remain relevant without being affiliated with positivist logics of inquiry. In examining the potential of alternativity, the article explores three modes of alternativity in peace and conflict studies: critique-without-alternative, critique-as-alternative, and critique-with-alternative. It probes the merits and limits of the episteme of alternativity in generating new possibilities for advancing emancipatory interests and saving critical theory from losing its original transformative impetus. In the final part, the article explores future directions for rejuvenating the purpose of critique by exploring the nexus between criticality and alternativity on post-paradigmatic and practical grounds.

The European Union's practice of state recognition: Between norms and interests

by Gëzim Visoka and Edward Newman

Review of International Studies, 2018

This article explores the European Union's (EU) practices of international state recognition in a... more This article explores the European Union's (EU) practices of international state recognition in a transitional international order. It illustrates the difficulties that the EU has encountered in attempting to reach a collective position on sensitive cases of recognition – through a complex balance of internal and external considerations – at a time when the norms regarding recognition are increasingly under challenge. Whether the organisation takes a collective European position on recognition or allows its members to adopt individual national positions, acute inconsistencies and tensions have been exposed, with implications for the EU's standing in the world. Through this, the article identifies a key tension between the EU's normative commitments and its geopolitical interests. In conclusion, the article argues that while a uniform EU policy on recognition may not be feasible and case-by-case pragmatism will likely continue, a more coherent approach and greater understanding of the impact of the EU's position on recognition are necessary. The article draws upon interview material and extensive analysis of official EU documentation in order to provide new insights into this complex challenge. By exploring the intricacies of recognition politics, the article also makes an empirical contribution to understanding the practice of international relations in this area.

Assessing the Potential Impact of the Kosovo Specialist Court

This policy study presents a comprehensive assessment of the potentially profound positive societ... more This policy study presents a comprehensive assessment of the potentially profound positive societal effects of the Kosovo Specialist Court's work, as well as the risks that work poses to intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic relations and political stability in Kosovo. It recommends a wide range of actions to be implemented by key institutions in Kosovo, including an inclusive programme of outreach and public dialogue focused on the Court, and a whole-of-society approach to transitional justice.

Agents of Peace: Place, Identity, and Peacebuilding

The Politics of Identity: Place, Space and Discourse, eds. Christine Agius and Dean Keep, Manchester University Press, 2018.

This chapter proposes a new account of the identity of agents in conflict-affected societies. It ... more

After Liberal Peace? From Failed State-Building to an Emancipatory Peace in Kosovo

by Oliver P Richmond and Gëzim Visoka

Attempts to build a liberal peace and a concurrent neoliberal state in Kosovo have not managed to... more Attempts to build a liberal peace and a concurrent neoliberal state in Kosovo have not managed to produce a sustainable and emancipatory peace. Instead, they have produced a local and negative hybrid peace that has been co-opted by the dynamics of local state formation and state contestation. These dynamics have overshadowed a meaningful transition from ethnic hostility to sustainable peace that should encompass pluralism, security, law, rights, and liberal institutions. This article examines this emergence of a negative hybrid peace and explores the prospects for a more emancipatory peace based on a local pro-peace infrastructure that avoids the pitfalls of liberal peace in practice.

The Foreign Policy of State Recognition: Kosovo’s Diplomatic Strategy to Join International Society

by Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka

This article explores the policies and activities undertaken by Kosovo as it seeks diplomatic rec... more This article explores the policies and activities undertaken by Kosovo as it seeks diplomatic recognition under conditions of contested statehood and transitional international order. Existing debates about diplomatic recognition—in particular, how independent sovereign statehood is achieved—generally rest upon systemic factors, normative institutions, and the preferences of great powers. In contrast, we argue that the experience of Kosovo presents a more complex and less predetermined process of international recognition, in which the agency of fledgling states, diplomatic skill, timing, and even chance may play a far more important role in mobilizing international support for recognition than is generally acknowledged. In building this argument, we explore Kosovo’s path to contested independence and examine the complex process of diplomatic recognition, as well as highlight the hybrid justifications for recognizing Kosovo’s statehood and independence. Without downplaying the importance of systemic factors, this article contributes to a critical rethinking of norms and processes related to state recognition in international affairs, which has implications for a broad range of cases.

Albanian Peacekeepers: Exploring the Inward-looking Utility of International Peacekeeping

This article provides the first comprehensive account of Albania’s contribution to international ... more This article provides the first comprehensive account of Albania’s contribution to international peacekeeping and explores its inward-looking rationales for providing peacekeepers. Specifically, we examine why Albania has energetically supported NATO- and EU-led military and crisis management operations and less so UN peacekeeping missions. We find that Albania’s contribution to peacekeeping operations has been primarily shaped by its inward-looking interests for accelerating membership in NATO, fostering integration in the EU, as well as reducing domestic and regional insecurities. Pinpointing accurately the motivations among troop-contributing states helps recover the true hierarchical order of rationales and explain why, in some cases, the performance and impact of peacekeeping operations for some contributing states is secondary. Overall, disentangling the inward-looking utility of peacekeeping by a small state such as Albania provides useful insights for understanding how regional integration dynamics affect peacekeeping.

CfP "Mobilities, Peace, and Conflict: Exploring the nexus between mobility, international peacebuilding, and (in)security"

by Oliver P Richmond, Gëzim Visoka, and Birte Vogel

The global and regional dimensions of many contemporary conflicts, as in the Middle East, and the... more The global and regional dimensions of many contemporary conflicts, as in the Middle East, and the persistence of poverty and insecurity across many conflict-affected and underdeveloped countries have triggered millions of people to seek refuge in Europe and other secure regions. For many individuals and communities’ mobility has become the only viable option to escape conflicts, material inequality, and structural violence, given the limits of sovereign diplomacy, international humanitarian intervention, and development. The protracted refugee crisis and the constant movement of economic migrants continue to dominate the international security agenda and are directly challenging global institutions as well as the modern state, and social affection towards those in need. The contemporary security regimes of states and international actors have become both the solution and obstacles to the protection of civilians affected by protracted conflicts and the emergence of peace. The politics of denial and mistreatment of conflict affected subjects and economic migrants are eroding the basis of the international trust and cooperation and highlighting their failure to uphold to international human rights obligations. The mobility of people intermeshed with growing insecurities from transnational terrorism and economic crisis have triggered multiple securitisation, discrimination, and disintegration processes, which have far-reaching implications for those seeking refuge and host communities. On the other hand, liberal and neoliberal versions of peace are predicated on static citizens, states, borders, and institutions. This conference seeks to explore the nexus between mobility, networks, scale, and (in)security. It aims to expand our knowledge of the conditions for peace under more mobile and networked forms of agency, and the role these processes have in shaping contemporary security, development, and peacebuilding policies. What type of peace and security might mobile and networked forms of agency imply, and what facilitates and blocks such aims?

Neo-Functional Peace: The European Union Way of Resolving Conﬂicts

by Gëzim Visoka and John Doyle

The European Union has expanded its role in preventing conflicts and building peace, but its inst... more The European Union has expanded its role in preventing conflicts and building peace, but its institutional practices remain insufficiently conceptualized. This article argues that, drawing from a strong self-perception toward a neo-functionalist interpretation of its own history, the EU uses ’neo-functional peace’ as an approach for resolving protracted disputes, through deconstructing highly political issues into technical meanings in order to achieve mutually acceptable agreements. This article explores the EU’s efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and examines the reliance on aspects of neo-functionalism for building peace after protracted disputes. We argue that neo-functional peace has played a crucial role in normalizing political relations and reconciling some of the outstanding disputes between Kosovo and Serbia. Building on this case study, we suggest a theoretical concept of neo-functional peace as a useful means to conceptualize the EU’s peace support practices.

Peace/Knowledge: The Promise of New Epistemologies of Peace

Arrested Truth: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Remembrance in Kosovo

This article examines the documentation of war crimes and human losses in Kosovo under the condit... more This article examines the documentation of war crimes and human losses in Kosovo under the conditions of contested transitional justice and ethno-nationalist politics of remembrance. The article argues that the documentation of war crimes in Kosovo was utilised for retributive justice by the international community, for political revenge by former foes, and for power/identity consolidation by local protagonists. Attempting to overcome this suffocation of the past, the new politics of remembrance in Kosovo propagated by civil society groups aspires to liberate the past from ethno-nationalist tendencies by constructing a bottom-up and virtual memorialisation, which is deemed to be inclusive for all sides in conflict, is indestructible in its virtual and post-material constellation, and is distinct with regard to the volume and reliability. While civil society-based documentation has the potential to overcome the ethno-nationalist entanglements in Kosovo and to compensate for the inability of international transitional justice mechanisms to deliver justice and truth to victims, their impact on overcoming the past and improving ethnic relations in Kosovo remains questionable. Accordingly, the article illustrates the contextual interplay between material, relational, and virtual forms of remembrance in Kosovo.

Peace is what we make of it? Peace-shaping events and ‘non-events’

Attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. Such endeavours often lead t... more Attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. Such endeavours often lead to unintended effects shaped by multiple factors, events, and actors. This raises the question: if the intentional actions that constitute peace processes do not succeed in bringing about their intended impact, what actually shapes peace? This article argues that peace is shaped by events and non-events within and beyond the liberal peace architecture, as well as being determined by local agents who are not directly or intentionally involved in peacebuilding endeavours. While the success of liberal peace is measured based on the generalised assemblage of selected events, the unintended, unanticipated, and unprevented events that emerge as consequences arising from liberal peace actions are reduced to non-events to minimise responsibility. However, the power of these ignored non-events that occur at local institutional, public, and everyday levels have been crucial to shaping the nature, process, duration, and politics of peacebuilding. Unpacking the politicisation of events and non-events reveals that peace is what we make of it rather than a true reflection of the complex reality in conflict-affected societies. To substantiate this conceptualisation of abstruse peace, this article draws on examples from numerous events and non-events as experienced in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste.

The Routledge Companion to Humanitarian Action, edited by Roger Mac Ginty and Jenny H. Peterson, Mar 26, 2015

Peacebuilding and International Responsibility

This article expands the conceptual and empirical understanding of relational responsibility in p... more This article expands the conceptual and empirical understanding of relational responsibility in peacebuilding, by unpicking the often ill-defined notion of responsibility into three discrete and hierarchical categories – attributability, answerability and accountability. Present practices of international responsibility for their executive powers in peacebuilding missions, are more affiliated with attributability and answerability than accountability. In order to substantiate and elaborate empirically this differentiated account of responsibility, the article explores the UN and EU responsibility mechanisms in Kosovo, focusing on the institutional design, effectiveness and results, as well as highlighting the practical limitations and problems. A more specific conceptualization of these practices, allows a clearer analysis of the aims and limitations of the mechanisms in place.

Contribution of Albania to Peacekeeping

Census politics and ethnicity in the Western Balkans

This article investigates how census politics in the Western Balkans take the form of a political... more This article investigates how census politics in the Western Balkans take the form of a political device to entrench or transform ethnic demographics, which can have implications for cooperation and reciprocity between neighbouring states. We argue that the contingency of census politics spring from a trinomial interaction between actors claiming to represent the dominant nationalising state, national minority, and external homeland. Building on this triangulation, this article explores the interaction between the dominance of the nationalising states, the influence of the national minority, and the interest/interference of the external homeland in the 2011 censuses in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The article illustrates how census-taking is a highly politicised process in a region with hostile political dynamics, which revealed the unstable and contested nature of citizenship, ethnic belonging, weak civic identity, and fragile regional relations.

Mapping Local Perspectives on Radicalization in Kosovo

by Gëzim Visoka and Adem Beha

CBM/KIP, 2021

Since the eruption of violent conflict in Syria and Iraq and the travelling of around 400 Kosovo ... more Since the eruption of violent conflict in Syria and Iraq and the travelling of around 400 Kosovo citizens to the region between 2012 and 2016, fear of radicalization and violent extremism became a prevalent issue in Kosovo. This attracted significant international attention which pushed the Government of Kosovo to take strong legal and punitive measures to counter violent extremism and prevent the rise of religious radicalization in the country. While extensive research is conducted in understanding the causes and dynamics of radicalization and violent extremism in Kosovo, mostly at the national level, less work is done in exploring the perspectives of local frontline actors on the prevalence of and response to this phenomenon at the municipal level. Drawing on interviews with local stakeholders across Kosovo, this study explores local perspectives on religious radicalization Kosovo. The study aims to map out the scope and meaning of religious radicalization that can potentially lead to violent extremism in Kosovo and explore the impact of existing policies and strategies for preventing and countering radicalization in the country. In particular, the study aims to understand the local sources of insecurity; stakeholders’ perception on violent extremism; functionality of municipal security mechanisms; and strategies for preventing and addressing radicalization at the communal level.

Peace-making: new technologies are no panacea

by Oliver P Richmond and Gëzim Visoka

Nature, 2021

PDF version For peace-making, artificial-intelligence and data-driven approaches (see, for exa... more PDF version

For peace-making, artificial-intelligence and data-driven approaches (see, for example, W. Guo et al. Nature 562, 331–333; 2018) should be viewed only as complements to the existing international architecture (see go.nature.com/3q13tpe). To predict and prevent war, political will and policy innovations are still necessary.

Kosovo 20 Years On: Implications for International Order

by Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka

The Brown Journal of World Affairs, 2020

Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving international order: the n... more Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving
international order: the norms and institutions that shape the behavior and practices of states and other international actors. In three controversial policy areas — humanitarian intervention, international peacebuilding, and international recognition — Kosovo has been the focus of events and debates with far-reaching and globally significant effects. This article will present and discuss these three subjects, and then conclude by considering how Kosovo’s future may continue to be tied to the shifting contours of international order in the context of renewed great power geopolitical rivalry.

Metis diplomacy: The everyday politics of becoming a sovereign state

How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international or... more How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international organizations in contemporary world politics? Using the concept of 'metis', this article explores the role of everyday prudent and situated discourses, diplomatic performances and entanglements in the enactment of sovereign statehood and the overcoming of external contestation. To this end, it describes Kosovo's diplomatic approach to becoming a sovereign state by obtaining international recognition and securing membership of international organizations. Drawing on institutional ethnographic research and first-hand observations, the article argues that Kosovo's success in consolidating its sovereign statehood has been the situational assemblage of multiple discourses, practiced through a broad variety of performative actions and shaped by a complex entanglement with global assemblages of norms, actors, relations and events. Accordingly, this study contributes to the conceptualization of the everyday in diplomatic practice by offering an account of how micro-practices feed into macro-practices in world politics.

Critique and Alternativity in International Relations

This article critically interrogates the episteme of alternativity in International Relations (IR... more This article critically interrogates the episteme of alternativity in International Relations (IR) to rethink the purpose of critical knowledge in global politics. It questions what critical knowledge is for and whose purpose it serves. While alternativity is the very condition which has given rise to critical approaches, there is a deep-rooted division among critical scholars on the relationship between criticality and alternativity. This article argues that alternativity provides an opportunity for critical scholars to remain relevant without being affiliated with positivist logics of inquiry. In examining the potential of alternativity, the article explores three modes of alternativity in peace and conflict studies: critique-without-alternative, critique-as-alternative, and critique-with-alternative. It probes the merits and limits of the episteme of alternativity in generating new possibilities for advancing emancipatory interests and saving critical theory from losing its original transformative impetus. In the final part, the article explores future directions for rejuvenating the purpose of critique by exploring the nexus between criticality and alternativity on post-paradigmatic and practical grounds.

The European Union's practice of state recognition: Between norms and interests

by Gëzim Visoka and Edward Newman

Review of International Studies, 2018

This article explores the European Union's (EU) practices of international state recognition in a... more This article explores the European Union's (EU) practices of international state recognition in a transitional international order. It illustrates the difficulties that the EU has encountered in attempting to reach a collective position on sensitive cases of recognition – through a complex balance of internal and external considerations – at a time when the norms regarding recognition are increasingly under challenge. Whether the organisation takes a collective European position on recognition or allows its members to adopt individual national positions, acute inconsistencies and tensions have been exposed, with implications for the EU's standing in the world. Through this, the article identifies a key tension between the EU's normative commitments and its geopolitical interests. In conclusion, the article argues that while a uniform EU policy on recognition may not be feasible and case-by-case pragmatism will likely continue, a more coherent approach and greater understanding of the impact of the EU's position on recognition are necessary. The article draws upon interview material and extensive analysis of official EU documentation in order to provide new insights into this complex challenge. By exploring the intricacies of recognition politics, the article also makes an empirical contribution to understanding the practice of international relations in this area.

Assessing the Potential Impact of the Kosovo Specialist Court

This policy study presents a comprehensive assessment of the potentially profound positive societ... more This policy study presents a comprehensive assessment of the potentially profound positive societal effects of the Kosovo Specialist Court's work, as well as the risks that work poses to intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic relations and political stability in Kosovo. It recommends a wide range of actions to be implemented by key institutions in Kosovo, including an inclusive programme of outreach and public dialogue focused on the Court, and a whole-of-society approach to transitional justice.

Agents of Peace: Place, Identity, and Peacebuilding

The Politics of Identity: Place, Space and Discourse, eds. Christine Agius and Dean Keep, Manchester University Press, 2018.

This chapter proposes a new account of the identity of agents in conflict-affected societies. It ... more

After Liberal Peace? From Failed State-Building to an Emancipatory Peace in Kosovo

by Oliver P Richmond and Gëzim Visoka

Attempts to build a liberal peace and a concurrent neoliberal state in Kosovo have not managed to... more Attempts to build a liberal peace and a concurrent neoliberal state in Kosovo have not managed to produce a sustainable and emancipatory peace. Instead, they have produced a local and negative hybrid peace that has been co-opted by the dynamics of local state formation and state contestation. These dynamics have overshadowed a meaningful transition from ethnic hostility to sustainable peace that should encompass pluralism, security, law, rights, and liberal institutions. This article examines this emergence of a negative hybrid peace and explores the prospects for a more emancipatory peace based on a local pro-peace infrastructure that avoids the pitfalls of liberal peace in practice.

The Foreign Policy of State Recognition: Kosovo’s Diplomatic Strategy to Join International Society

by Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka

This article explores the policies and activities undertaken by Kosovo as it seeks diplomatic rec... more This article explores the policies and activities undertaken by Kosovo as it seeks diplomatic recognition under conditions of contested statehood and transitional international order. Existing debates about diplomatic recognition—in particular, how independent sovereign statehood is achieved—generally rest upon systemic factors, normative institutions, and the preferences of great powers. In contrast, we argue that the experience of Kosovo presents a more complex and less predetermined process of international recognition, in which the agency of fledgling states, diplomatic skill, timing, and even chance may play a far more important role in mobilizing international support for recognition than is generally acknowledged. In building this argument, we explore Kosovo’s path to contested independence and examine the complex process of diplomatic recognition, as well as highlight the hybrid justifications for recognizing Kosovo’s statehood and independence. Without downplaying the importance of systemic factors, this article contributes to a critical rethinking of norms and processes related to state recognition in international affairs, which has implications for a broad range of cases.

Albanian Peacekeepers: Exploring the Inward-looking Utility of International Peacekeeping

This article provides the first comprehensive account of Albania’s contribution to international ... more This article provides the first comprehensive account of Albania’s contribution to international peacekeeping and explores its inward-looking rationales for providing peacekeepers. Specifically, we examine why Albania has energetically supported NATO- and EU-led military and crisis management operations and less so UN peacekeeping missions. We find that Albania’s contribution to peacekeeping operations has been primarily shaped by its inward-looking interests for accelerating membership in NATO, fostering integration in the EU, as well as reducing domestic and regional insecurities. Pinpointing accurately the motivations among troop-contributing states helps recover the true hierarchical order of rationales and explain why, in some cases, the performance and impact of peacekeeping operations for some contributing states is secondary. Overall, disentangling the inward-looking utility of peacekeeping by a small state such as Albania provides useful insights for understanding how regional integration dynamics affect peacekeeping.

CfP "Mobilities, Peace, and Conflict: Exploring the nexus between mobility, international peacebuilding, and (in)security"

by Oliver P Richmond, Gëzim Visoka, and Birte Vogel

The global and regional dimensions of many contemporary conflicts, as in the Middle East, and the... more The global and regional dimensions of many contemporary conflicts, as in the Middle East, and the persistence of poverty and insecurity across many conflict-affected and underdeveloped countries have triggered millions of people to seek refuge in Europe and other secure regions. For many individuals and communities’ mobility has become the only viable option to escape conflicts, material inequality, and structural violence, given the limits of sovereign diplomacy, international humanitarian intervention, and development. The protracted refugee crisis and the constant movement of economic migrants continue to dominate the international security agenda and are directly challenging global institutions as well as the modern state, and social affection towards those in need. The contemporary security regimes of states and international actors have become both the solution and obstacles to the protection of civilians affected by protracted conflicts and the emergence of peace. The politics of denial and mistreatment of conflict affected subjects and economic migrants are eroding the basis of the international trust and cooperation and highlighting their failure to uphold to international human rights obligations. The mobility of people intermeshed with growing insecurities from transnational terrorism and economic crisis have triggered multiple securitisation, discrimination, and disintegration processes, which have far-reaching implications for those seeking refuge and host communities. On the other hand, liberal and neoliberal versions of peace are predicated on static citizens, states, borders, and institutions. This conference seeks to explore the nexus between mobility, networks, scale, and (in)security. It aims to expand our knowledge of the conditions for peace under more mobile and networked forms of agency, and the role these processes have in shaping contemporary security, development, and peacebuilding policies. What type of peace and security might mobile and networked forms of agency imply, and what facilitates and blocks such aims?

Neo-Functional Peace: The European Union Way of Resolving Conﬂicts

by Gëzim Visoka and John Doyle

The European Union has expanded its role in preventing conflicts and building peace, but its inst... more The European Union has expanded its role in preventing conflicts and building peace, but its institutional practices remain insufficiently conceptualized. This article argues that, drawing from a strong self-perception toward a neo-functionalist interpretation of its own history, the EU uses ’neo-functional peace’ as an approach for resolving protracted disputes, through deconstructing highly political issues into technical meanings in order to achieve mutually acceptable agreements. This article explores the EU’s efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and examines the reliance on aspects of neo-functionalism for building peace after protracted disputes. We argue that neo-functional peace has played a crucial role in normalizing political relations and reconciling some of the outstanding disputes between Kosovo and Serbia. Building on this case study, we suggest a theoretical concept of neo-functional peace as a useful means to conceptualize the EU’s peace support practices.

Peace/Knowledge: The Promise of New Epistemologies of Peace

Arrested Truth: Transitional Justice and the Politics of Remembrance in Kosovo

This article examines the documentation of war crimes and human losses in Kosovo under the condit... more This article examines the documentation of war crimes and human losses in Kosovo under the conditions of contested transitional justice and ethno-nationalist politics of remembrance. The article argues that the documentation of war crimes in Kosovo was utilised for retributive justice by the international community, for political revenge by former foes, and for power/identity consolidation by local protagonists. Attempting to overcome this suffocation of the past, the new politics of remembrance in Kosovo propagated by civil society groups aspires to liberate the past from ethno-nationalist tendencies by constructing a bottom-up and virtual memorialisation, which is deemed to be inclusive for all sides in conflict, is indestructible in its virtual and post-material constellation, and is distinct with regard to the volume and reliability. While civil society-based documentation has the potential to overcome the ethno-nationalist entanglements in Kosovo and to compensate for the inability of international transitional justice mechanisms to deliver justice and truth to victims, their impact on overcoming the past and improving ethnic relations in Kosovo remains questionable. Accordingly, the article illustrates the contextual interplay between material, relational, and virtual forms of remembrance in Kosovo.

Peace is what we make of it? Peace-shaping events and ‘non-events’

Attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. Such endeavours often lead t... more Attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. Such endeavours often lead to unintended effects shaped by multiple factors, events, and actors. This raises the question: if the intentional actions that constitute peace processes do not succeed in bringing about their intended impact, what actually shapes peace? This article argues that peace is shaped by events and non-events within and beyond the liberal peace architecture, as well as being determined by local agents who are not directly or intentionally involved in peacebuilding endeavours. While the success of liberal peace is measured based on the generalised assemblage of selected events, the unintended, unanticipated, and unprevented events that emerge as consequences arising from liberal peace actions are reduced to non-events to minimise responsibility. However, the power of these ignored non-events that occur at local institutional, public, and everyday levels have been crucial to shaping the nature, process, duration, and politics of peacebuilding. Unpacking the politicisation of events and non-events reveals that peace is what we make of it rather than a true reflection of the complex reality in conflict-affected societies. To substantiate this conceptualisation of abstruse peace, this article draws on examples from numerous events and non-events as experienced in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste.

The Routledge Companion to Humanitarian Action, edited by Roger Mac Ginty and Jenny H. Peterson, Mar 26, 2015

Peacebuilding and International Responsibility

This article expands the conceptual and empirical understanding of relational responsibility in p... more This article expands the conceptual and empirical understanding of relational responsibility in peacebuilding, by unpicking the often ill-defined notion of responsibility into three discrete and hierarchical categories – attributability, answerability and accountability. Present practices of international responsibility for their executive powers in peacebuilding missions, are more affiliated with attributability and answerability than accountability. In order to substantiate and elaborate empirically this differentiated account of responsibility, the article explores the UN and EU responsibility mechanisms in Kosovo, focusing on the institutional design, effectiveness and results, as well as highlighting the practical limitations and problems. A more specific conceptualization of these practices, allows a clearer analysis of the aims and limitations of the mechanisms in place.

Contribution of Albania to Peacekeeping

Census politics and ethnicity in the Western Balkans

This article investigates how census politics in the Western Balkans take the form of a political... more This article investigates how census politics in the Western Balkans take the form of a political device to entrench or transform ethnic demographics, which can have implications for cooperation and reciprocity between neighbouring states. We argue that the contingency of census politics spring from a trinomial interaction between actors claiming to represent the dominant nationalising state, national minority, and external homeland. Building on this triangulation, this article explores the interaction between the dominance of the nationalising states, the influence of the national minority, and the interest/interference of the external homeland in the 2011 censuses in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The article illustrates how census-taking is a highly politicised process in a region with hostile political dynamics, which revealed the unstable and contested nature of citizenship, ethnic belonging, weak civic identity, and fragile regional relations.

The Derecognition of States

The University of Michigan Press, 2024

Although a great deal is known about the recognition of states, less is known about the practice ... more Although a great deal is known about the recognition of states, less is known about the practice of derecognition of states, namely why and how states withdraw the recognition of other contested and partially recognized states. The Derecognition of States offers a global and comparative outlook of this unexplored diplomatic practice. Using original empirical research, it addresses the complex processes, justifications, and consequences of state derecognition. In particular, it provides unique insights into five aspirant states facing withdrawal of recognition: Taiwan, Western Sahara, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Kosovo.

Gëzim Visoka argues that state derecognition is a highly controversial and unstable practice that has less to do with the unfulfillment of the conditions of statehood by the claimant than with the advancement of the self-interest of the former base state and derecognizing state. The derecognition of states is not a rule; rather, it is an exception in international diplomacy, driven by political expediency and is incompatible with original rationales for granting recognition. Yet, the derecognition of states is far more important than previously recognized in shaping the reversal dynamics of secession and state creation and in influencing regional peace, geopolitical rivalries, and the international order. By analyzing the withdrawal of recognition, the book offers a window into the reversal politics of unbecoming a sovereign state and how the arbitrary beginning and the end of diplomatic relations between states take place.

Peace in digital international relations

by Oliver P Richmond, Gëzim Visoka, and Ioannis Tellidis

Cambridge University Press, 2023

The international architecture of peacebuilding and statebuilding is currently responding to a sh... more The international architecture of peacebuilding and
statebuilding is currently responding to a shift from ‘analogue’ to
‘digital’ approaches in international relations. This is affecting conflict
management, intervention, peacebuilding, and the all-important role
of civil society. This Element analyses the potential that these new
digital forms of international relations offer for the reform of peace
praxis – namely, the enhancement of critical agency across networks
and scales, the expansion of claims for rights and the mitigation of
obstacles posed by sovereignty, locality, and territoriality. The Element
also addresses the parallel limitations of digital technologies in terms of
political emancipation related to subaltern claims, the risk of
co-optation by historical and analogue power structures, institutions,
and actors. The authors conclude that though aspects of emerging
digital approaches to making peace are promising, they cannot yet
bypass or resolve older, analogue conflict dynamics revolving around
power relations, territorialism, and state formation.

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies

by Gëzim Visoka and Oliver P Richmond

This encyclopaedia provides a comprehensive overview of major theories and approaches to the stud... more This encyclopaedia provides a comprehensive overview of major theories and approaches to the study of peace and conflict across different humanities and social sciences disciplines. Peace and conflict studies (PCS) is one of the major sub-disciplines of international studies (including political sciences and international relations), and has emerged from a need to understand war, related systems and concepts and how to respond to it afterward. PCS has become an important site for inter-disciplinary studies, spanning war studies, security and development; state formation and statebuilding; law and human rights; civil society and political authority; philosophy and religion; the anthropology and history of political order; environmental dimensions; as well as the arts and literature, psychology, and material conditions of peace, peacemaking, peace agreements, the peaceful state, the nature of regional and international cooperation, and organisation, and more.

Normalization in World Politics

University of Michigan Press, 2022

The notions of normalcy and normalization have been present for some time in international relati... more The notions of normalcy and normalization have been present for some time in international relations, but there has been little explicit effort to conceptualize and unpack their meanings in practice. This book explores the discourses and practices of normalization in world politics. It investigates three distinct types of normalization interventions: those seeking to impose a new order of normalcy over fragile states, those seeking to either restore or develop a more resilient normalcy in disaster-affected states, and those seeking to accept an endogenous meaning of normalcy in suppressive states. The book argues that discourses and practices of normalization have emerged as intervention optimization manifested through selective, uneven, and discordant responses to governing risks and disciplining states. Accordingly, this book highlights some of the contemporary analytics of interventionism in world politics, particularly the efforts of dominant states to employ normalization technologies to create a society of docile states that eventually would become passive yet productive subjects, open to external examination, regulation, and punitive measures, as well as disciplined and open to transformation and norm taking. By providing a critical account of the discourses and practices of normalization in world politics, this book exposes the changing rationales and techniques of intervention and domination among states.

Failed Peacemaking: Counter-Peace and International Order

by Oliver P Richmond, Sandra Pogodda, and Gëzim Visoka

Palgrave, 2023

This introduction outlines the book’s main argument that peace processes across the world have be... more This introduction outlines the book’s main argument that peace processes across the world have become systematically blocked in the post-Cold War era, indicating the emergence of proto-systemic counter-peace processes. Indeed, the dominant trend towards stagna-tion, reversal and collapse of internationally-sponsored attempts to create peace shows that peacemaking is failing. The chapter sketches the inter-national peace architecture (IPA), which the subsequent analysis shows as being entangled with counter-peace processes. Subsequently, some preliminary examples of failed peacemaking and some initial reflections on tactical blockages hint at the scale, scope and effectiveness of contem-porary counter-peace processes. The chapter concludes by introducing the structure of the book and its research questions.

Routledge Handbook of State Recognition

by Gëzim Visoka, John Doyle, and Edward Newman

Routledge Handbook of State Recognition, 2019

Routledge Handbook of State Recognition is the first comprehensive and multidisciplinary companio... more Routledge Handbook of State Recognition is the first comprehensive and multidisciplinary companion to theoretical, comparative, and empirical aspects underpinning the recognition of states in international relations, international law, comparative politics, and international political theory. Although the recognition of states plays a central role in shaping global politics, it remains an under-researched and widely-dispersed subject. Coherently and innovatively structured, this handbook brings together world-renowned scholars that examine the most important theoretical and comparative perspectives on state recognition, core pathways to secession and self-determination, broad range of actors and strategies that shape the recognition of states, and a significant number of contemporary case studies. This new handbook will be essential reading for students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of foreign policy, international relations, international law, comparative politics, and area studies.

Acting Like a State: Kosovo and the Everyday Making of Statehood

Routledge, 2018

How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international or... more How do emerging states obtain international recognition and secure membership of international organisations in contemporary world politics? This book provides the first in-depth study of Kosovo’s diplomatic approach to becoming a sovereign state by obtaining international recognition and securing membership of international organisations. Analysing the everyday diplomatic discourses, performances, and entanglements, this book contends that state-becoming is not wholly determined by systemic factors, normative institutions, or the preferences of great powers; the diplomatic agency of the fledgling state plays a far more important role than is generally acknowledged. Drawing on institutional ethnographic research and first-hand observations, this book argues that Kosovo’s diplomatic success in consolidating its sovereign statehood has been the situational assemblage of multiple discourses, practiced through a broad variety of performative actions, and shaped by a complex entanglement with global assemblages of norms, actors, relations, and events. Accordingly, this book contributes to expanding our understanding of the everyday diplomatic agency of emerging states and the changing norms, politics, and practices regarding the diplomatic recognition of states and their admission to international society.

Contents:

1. Becoming a Sovereign State
2. The Everyday Making of Statehood
3. Crafting Statehood
4. Writing Sovereignty
5. Performing Sovereignty
6. Entangling Sovereignty
7. The Price of Statehood

Shaping Peace in Kosovo: The Politics of Peacebuilding and Statehood

This book explores the prospects and limits of international intervention in building peace and c... more This book explores the prospects and limits of international intervention in building peace and creating a new state in an ethnically divided society and fragmented international order. The book offers a critical account of the international missions in Kosovo and traces the effectiveness of fluid forms of interventionism. It also explores the co-optation of peace by ethno-nationalist groups and explores how their contradictory perception of peace produced an ungovernable peace, which has been manifested with intractable ethnic antagonisms, state capture, and ignorance of the root causes, drivers, and consequences of the conflict. Under these conditions, prospects for emancipatory peace have not come from external actors, ethno-nationalist elite, and critical resistance movements, but from local and everyday acts of peace formation and agnostic forms for reconciliation. The book proposes an emancipatory agenda for peace in Kosovo embedded on post-ethnic politics and joint commitments to peace, a comprehensive agenda for reconciliation, people-centred security, and peace-enabling external assistance.

Peace Figuration after International Intervention

This book examines the adverse impacts of liberal peacebuilding in conflict-affected societies. I... more This book examines the adverse impacts of liberal peacebuilding in conflict-affected societies. It introduces ‘peace figuration’ as a new analytical framework for studying the intentionality, performativity, and consequences of liberal peacebuilding. The work challenges current theories and views and searches for alternative non-conflicted research avenues that are suitable for understanding how peacebuilding intentions are made, how different events shape peace outcomes, and what are the consequences of peacebuilding interventions. Drawing on detailed case studies of peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Timor-Leste, the book argues that attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. A figurational view of peacebuilding interventions shows that post-conflict societies experience multiple episodes of success and failure in an unpredictable trajectory. This book develops a relational sociology of peacebuilding impact, which is crucial for overcoming static measurement of peacebuilding successes or failures. It shows that international interventions can shape peace but, importantly, not always in the shape they intended. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, peacebuilding, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR.

NATO in Kosovo and the logic of successful security practices

International Affairs, 2024

NATO's involvement in Kosovo and its transformation from a military intervention to a UN-authoriz... more NATO's involvement in Kosovo and its transformation from a military intervention to a UN-authorized peacekeeping operation has played a key role in the evolution of the alliance's strategic and political agenda. This article explores the importance of NATO's engagement with Kosovo in retrospect and in relation to the future outlook for European and global peace and security. It focuses on the centrality of this case for NATO's post-Cold War identity and as a key issue in the renewed political conflict associated with the transitional international order. We make three arguments. First, we argue that NATO's involvement in Kosovo has shaped and exacerbated the broader friction associated with the shifting international order. Second, we make the case that this engagement has played a key role in the strategic, political and operational development of NATO and its evolving identity. Thirdly, as a result of this, we argue that NATO's evolution and transformation in Kosovo was guided by what we call the logic of successful security practices. This entails making prudent political choices and implementing practical steps to harmonize divergent strategic interests among NATO members, adapting to shifting security circumstances, and upholding the organization's significance, credibility and influence both within and beyond the Euro-Atlantic community.

Kosovo: Between Western and Non-Western States

Florian Bieber and Nikolaos Tzifakis (eds), The Western Balkans in the World: Linkages and Relations with External Actors. London: Routledge., 2019

This chapter offers an overview of Kosovo’s relationship with western and non-western states. It ... more This chapter offers an overview of Kosovo’s relationship with western and non-western states. It argues that Kosovo’s external linkages are predominantly determined by the historical context of state formation which has forced Kosovo to pursue an inward-looking, pragmatic, and situational approach to foreign affairs. Kosovo’s journey to state-becoming required pragmatic navigation towards external actors permitting an unprecedented level of external intervention in shaping and influencing Kosovo’s policies in exchange for political and economic support. This chapter first examines Kosovo’s strategic entanglement with western states to demonstrate how the foreign policy of recognition and thrust for statebuilding have become the contextual bedrock for aligning fanatically with Euro-Atlantic community of states, organisations, and political agendas. The chapter then explores Kosovo’s relations with non-western states to illustrate how history, religion, and geography play a role in determining the nascent state’s relations with the rest of the word. In the final section, the chapter offers an outlook of Kosovo’s future entanglement with western and non-western states.

After Hybridity?

Normal Peace: A New Strategic Narrative of Intervention

by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert and Gëzim Visoka

Politics and Governance

International actors have used multiple discursive frameworks for justifying interventions, from ... more International actors have used multiple discursive frameworks for justifying interventions, from human security to the responsibility to protect, and, most recently, resilience-building. We argue that the language of normalization, hidden behind these narratives of interventions, has also contributed to structure the intervention landscape, albeit in less obvious and overt ways than other competing narratives of intervention. This article disentangles the different practices of normalization in order to highlight their ramifications. It introduces the concept of normal peace—a new conceptual reference to understand interventions undertaken by the international community to impose, restore or accept normalcy in turbulent societies. The article argues that the optimization of interventions entails selective responses to govern risk and adapt to the transitional international order. The art of what is politically possible underlines the choice of optimal intervention, be that to impose an external order of normalcy, restore the previous order of normalcy, or accept the existing order of normalcy.