EU Leverage & National Interests in the Balkans:
The Puzzles of Enlargement 10 years on’
event
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Date
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Tuesday, 28 May 2013
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Venue
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Cañada Blanch Room, Cowdray House, LSE
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Speaker
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Dr Milada Vachudova, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Chair
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Dr James Ker-Lindsay, Senior Research Fellow, LSEE-Research on South Eastern Europe
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O
n 28 May 2013, Dr Milada Vachudova, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, gave a presentation entitled, ‘EU Leverage & National Interests in the Balkans: The Puzzles of Enlargement 10 years on’. This was an extremely well attended seminar in the LSEE series, a testament to the expertise and research reputation of our guest speaker. Dr Vachudova spoke elegantly and concisely on what she saw as some of the major developments in thinking about enlargement and its consequences since the EU took on 10 new members in 2003.
With this in the background, her remarks also took in current prospects for enlargement in the Western Balkans, especially with the case of Croatia’s accession looming so close on the horizon. Her comments also took in Serbia and Bosnia.
Much of the engaging discussion that followed, under the chairmanship of Dr James Ker-Lindsay, focused on a combination of conceptual issues to do with the changing nature of interpreting enlargement and its consequences, and a broad-ranging exchange on the prospects of further enlargement in the Western Balkans. Suffice it to say that the issue of conditionality figured highly in this dialogue.
This was an excellent way for LSEE to finish off its 2012/13 Research Seminar programme.