Garčević Discusses Western Balkans During CEUCE Colloquium
On August 2, 2021, Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, took part in the virtual colloquium titled “EU Institutions: Views from Inside the Brussels Complex,” which was part of the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence’s (CEUCE) Brussels Summer Study program. This summer’s colloquium was led by Professor Kaija Schilde, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School.
In his initial remarks, Garčević questioned why the European Union (EU) had been losing its soft power attraction in the Western Balkans despite two powerful tools at its hands, the EU membership perspective and intensive economic cooperation/the volume of FDIs.
Searching for an answer to this question, discussants covered several issues: the Chinese/Russian Influence in the Balkans, the impact of infodemic in the region and how anti-Western geopolitical actors have made good use of the pandemic to undermine the image of the EU and NATO and promote their own agendas, the EU and NATO enlargement process in Europe, the current state of play in the relations between Brussels and the Western Balkans, and much more.
Garčević pointed out that the inability of the West to support vaccination rollout earlier this year has given Moscow and Beijing further advantage in the Balkans. One of his conclusions was that as democratic standards in the region would continue to backslide, the ability of China and Russia to flex their muscles would likely grow.
During his diplomatic career, Ambassador Vesko Garčević dealt with issues pertinent to European security and NATO for almost 14 years. In 2004, he was posted in Vienna to serve as Ambassador to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He had been a Montenegro’s Ambassador to NATO from 2010 until 2014 and served as a Montenegro’s National Coordinator for NATO from 2015 until he joined the faculty at the Pardee School. Learn more about Ambassador Garčević on his faculty profile.