The Balkans: Nationalism, War And The Great Pow... May 2026

The path forward for the Balkans lies in transcending the narrow nationalism of the past in favor of regional cooperation. However, as long as history is used as a weapon and external powers use the region as a proxy, the "Powder Keg" remains a delicate piece of the European puzzle.

The 20th century saw these tensions boil over repeatedly. The effectively ended Ottoman rule but left the victors fighting over the remains. Shortly after, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist acted as the spark that ignited World War I , dragging the entire globe into a conflict born of regional grievances. The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Pow...

In the 19th century, as the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires began to wane, a fervent sense of national identity took root across the peninsula. Unlike the civic nationalism seen in Western Europe, Balkan nationalism was deeply tied to ethnicity, religion, and historical memory. The path forward for the Balkans lies in