The presidential elections in Montenegro, held in in early April 2023, saw Jakov Milatović unseating the incumbent Milo Đukanović, the man who had held the post of prime minister or president interchangeably for over three decades. In June, the country goes to the polls again for parliamentary elections that are likely to alter the political landscape.
What are the consequences of these significant changes for Montenegro and for the wider Western Balkans? The panel discussed the impact of recent events and assess both the trajectory that led to these shifts and the challenges that may lie ahead.
Meet our speakers and chair
Neven Andjelic is Assistant Professor in International Relations and Human Rights at the Regent’s University London. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna. Besides his academic activities, Neven remains as an activist for human rights issues in his country of origin, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He also had a career in journalism, having worked for CNN, BBC, ITN, Channel 4 in the UK and all the leading media in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His latest book, Covid-19, State-Power and Society in Europe: Focus on Western Balkans has been published in 2022 by Springer.
Kenneth Morrison specialises in modern Southeast European politics and history, with an emphasis on Serbia, (including the Sandžak), Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. He has published widely in his field and is the author of Montenegro: A Modern History (IB Tauris, 2009), Sarajevo's Holiday Inn: On the Frontline of Politics and War (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016), Nationalism, Statehood and Identity in Post-Yugoslav Montenegro (Bloomsbury, 2018), and the co-author of The Sandžak: A History (Hurst & Co./Oxford University Press). He has published chapters and articles in numerous edited books and journals.
Tena Prelec (PhD, Sussex University, School of Law, Politics and Sociology) is a Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford. Her research focuses, broadly, on issues of good governance and anti-corruption, with a specific focus on how transnational kleptocracy is enabled by the global financial architecture. At present, she is conducting work on Russian foreign policy and illicit financial flows in collaboration with the University of Exeter, UK, while also looking into the specific form kleptocracy takes in South Eastern Europe as a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Studies of the University of Rijeka, Croatia. She is also an established analyst on the Western Balkans, including as Region Head at Oxford Analytica, Research Associate at LSEE-Research on South Eastern Europe (London School of Economics and Political Science), and member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG). Other research interests include transnational authoritarianism, academic freedom, and the intersection between governance and geopolitics. She is part of the latest cohort of Marshall Memorial Fellows, the flagship leadership development programme of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Vassilis Monastiriotis is Associate Professor in the Political Economy of South Eastern Europe at the LSE, and Director of LSEE.
The twitter Hashtag for this event is: #LSEMontenegro
Podcast
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More about this event
LSEE (@LSEE_LSE ) was officially launched at the start of the 2009-10 academic year as a research unit established within LSE's European Institute. Over the last several years LSEE has developed the School's expertise on South East Europe, drawing on the strength of existing and new academic expertise at LSE.