The thesis focuses on the chronological identification and detection of the discursive analogies between the category of 'the nation‘ and those of 'the West‘, 'Europe‘, 'democracy‘ and 'independence‘ in the Kosovo Albanian ethnonationalist narrative. The study represents a multi-dimensional exercise analysing the ethnonationalist discourse from a wide array of sample text which was produced during two relevant historical periods: the period between 1870-1930 and the period between 1980-2000. The first interval covers the period which is known in the Albanian history as the 'National Rebirth‘. The second deals with the recent history of political resistance of Kosovo Albanians and their 'sudden‘ discursive shift, from the narrative of 'unification with the Motherland Albania‘ (the unificationist/irredentist discourse) to the narrative of 'the independent Kosovo‘ (the independentist discourse) The main theoretical pillars of the study focus on the theories about the nation (specifically, its ethnic variation) and its narrative, the nationalism—as well as the representational systems of orientalism and balkanism (Said, 1978; Todorova, 1997). The study demonstrates that the discourse about the nation and national identity among Albanians is produced primarily through the internalisation of the external, orientalist approach in defining and understanding the social reality of the Balkan societies. Such internalisation is analysed through the prism of local adoption of the sociocultural and sociopolitical hegemonizing discourse that constituted the Western orientalist 'knowledge‘ about the Balkans—and, specifically, Albanians. The study notes that such discursive strategy of internalisation of orientalist traits within the ethnonationalist narrative is not limited to the Albanian societies (in both Albania and Kosovo) but appears as common feature in most of the societies/nations of the former Yugoslavia. In time, the study highlights, such process of 'nesting orientalisms‘ (Bakic-Hayden, 1996) was coupled with the phenomenon of the regional, exclusionist and competing ethnonationalist narratives which was aimed at constituing a nation‘s 'westernness‘ and 'Europeanness‘ through denying it to the other.

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University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ‘instrumental territorialisation’ (a concept based on Foucauldian and Deleuzian premises) of the Western Balkans, and the manner in which the emergence of territory is enmeshed within wider political, cultural and artistic dynamics. Understanding how these processes are involved in the field of culture - more precisely visual art - presents the leading challenge of this study. One of my central arguments is that the ‘creation of a territory’ can be understood through the lens of artistic terms and practices. I use the notions of territorialisation, panopticon and heterotopia to explore the functioning of visual art in the Western Balkans, while interrogating the different ways in which territorial arrangements have been implicated in the rise of new cultural policies and practices. The study relies on visual methods and interviews to explore the establishment of a new region, through this process of instrumental territorialisation, which has resulted in a specific political and cultural arrangement. The research proceeds to a demonstration of the way in which the cultural changes and artistic practices in the Western Balkans, in all their different aspects, are associated with a plethora of political narratives, discourses, arrangements and regulations.

Although in recent years studies on secession and self-determination have increased, research on why secessions succeed remains limited. This thesis contributes to filling this gap by arguing that a secession can be regarded as successful when it results in the creation of a recognised and viable entity. In order to examine this assumption empirically, the thesis applied a process-tracing methodology to the case study of Kosovo, a case that had both an unsuccessful attempt to secede in 1991 and a far more successful one in 2008. It discovered that changes taking place at four different levels, local, state, regional and global, from 1991 to 2008, created the conditions for Kosovo to ensure international support from influential states that would promote its international recognition and would support its internal viability after it unilaterally declared independence for the second time. Finally, this thesis, recognising that Kosovo’s statehood is still contested, has expanded the initial assumption of international recognition and internal viability and concluded that a unilateral secession is successful when the extent of international recognition and internal viability renders it irreversible.

This thesis examines the construction and articulation of diasporic cultural ident4y among Turkish male hip-hop youth living in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The research reflects upon the narratives and life-worlds of two predominantly male youth groups, whose 'habitats of meaning' are primarily defined by the ethnic enclave in which they are living. The research strategy mainly involves qualitative research techniques such as 'rapport', 'in-depth interviews' and 'semi-structured interviews', and attempts to go beyond the dichotomy of 'objectivism' and 'subjectivism' by combining the two in a hybrid form. The main assumption of this study is that Berlin-Turkish hip-hop youngsters have recently developed a politics of diaspora to cope with their structural outsiderism in their country of settlement. The social and cultural space created by Turkish migrants and their descendants in Kreuzberg, or in what they call 'Little Istanbul', constitutes a diasporic space which provides the modem diasporic subject with a syotholic bridge between the diaspora and their homeland. In this diasporic space, they tend to gain an 'imagined sense of belonging' to their homeland Turkey, which has been 'deferred' as a spiritual, cultural and political metaphor, on the other hand, conversely they also develop a strong sense of homing to the 'Turkified' Kreuzberg. Besides shedding light on the notion of diasporic identity, this study also attempts to underline two major constituents shaping diasporic cultural identity, namely globalisation and cultural bricolage. Modern diasporic identity is constructed and articulated through means of globalisation. The growth of modern communication and transportation networks such as TV channels, video tapes, newspapers, internet facilities and charter flights has facilitated and increased the pace of communication between Germany and Turkey. In consonance with this, the diaspora has infiltrated the homeland, and the homeland infiltrated the diaspora. Transnational connections with homeland, other members of diaspora in various geographies, and/or with a world-political force (such as Islam) break the binary relation of minority conamunities with majority societies as well as strengthening their claims against an oppressive national hegemony. Modem means of globalisation have not only brought the homeland closer to the diaspora, but also erased the distance between the diasporic subject and the external world. Modern networks of globalisation have provided Berlin-Turkish youth with an opportunity to incorporate themselves into different global cultural streams such as hip-hop culture. In the context of Berlin-Turkish hip-hop youth, what emerged out of these transnational links is a syncretic form of minority youth culture, or 'third culture'. This 'third culture' is a bricolage in which elements from different cultural traditions, sources and social discourses are continuously intermingled with and juxtaposed to each other. This work also investigates the transformation of political participation strategies which Turkish migrants in Berlin have developed since the beginning of the migratory process in 1961. So far, there have been two principal strategies, namely a migrant strategy and a minor4y strategy. Both strategies developed along ethnic lines partly due to the exciusionist incorporation regimes of the Federal Republic of Germany vis-â-vis' migrants. Yet, recently diasporic consciousness seems to be replacing, or at least, supplementing the migrant and minority strategies. The work concludes that the politics of diaspora is grounded on different antithetical forces such as past/present, here/there, 'tradition'/'translation' and local/global. In this sense, modern diasporic identity conveys an identity which is not a fixed, essentialist and authorised totality, but which is always in a constant process of change and transformation.

The research approaches Turkish membership question to the European Union as an open-ended struggle among social forces. It aims to address whether there is a hegemonic pro-membership perspective and if any, which social forces are supporting it. Is there any alternative contesting and resisting membership and neo-liberal restructuring? Can disadvantaged groups from globalisation form a united struggle, and if not, how can we account for the lack of an alternative? At the theoretical level, it dismisses mainstream integration theories as debate is mainly stuck to the dichotomy between membership or not (form of integration), that in return is a non-debate. It introduces Gramscian historical materialist framework that paves the way to account for socio-economic content and power relations underpinning ongoing integration process. The argument proceeds by delving into a debate on theoretical coordinates regarding hegemony in Gramscian analyses and the theory of discourse introduced by Laclau and Mouffe in the Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Ultimately, it dismisses theory of discourse and conceives class struggle in relation to discipline of capital over society within social relations of production. The empirical data relies on semi-structured interviews conducted with capital and labour, political parties, state officials and women rights/feminist groups and human rights groups. Additionally, particular sectors, textile, automotive and agriculture are examined in parallel with Gramscian historical materialist coordinates on intra-class struggle. I shall argue that pro-membership perspective, whose socio-economic content is consolidation of neo-liberal restructuring, is hegemonic. It is pioneered by internationally oriented capital and conveyed as the means to stimulate competitiveness and economic growth and to consolidate democracy. It draws support from nationally oriented capital analogous with delocalization of production and integration to transnational production via outsourcing and contract manufacturing. Yet, it is possible to identify two rival class strategies that contest neo-liberal pro-membership project, neo-mercantilism that is supported by nationally oriented labour, nationalist political parties, centre-left political parties and Ha-vet (No-Yes) that is underpinned by internationally oriented labour, social democratic fraction among the Left, particular women rights groups and human rights groups. On the one hand, position of social forces underpinning neo-mercantilism is weakened in economy and ideas that echo import-substitution policy under Keynesian welfare state regime and developmentalist state in periphery are defeated analogous with globalisation and neo-liberal restructuring. The only criticism of neo-mercantilist project remains on national sensitivities. Put bluntly, the critique is anti-imperialist though not anti-capitalist. At the final analysis, membership is interpreted in relation to modernization and westernization with a populist discourse. On the other hand, although social forces within Ha-vet read European Union as a capitalist economic integration model, they conceive internationalisation of labour and European Social Model as the only viable mechanism to struggle against globalization and transnationalisation of production. Moreover, European integration is received positively as a democratization project. Ultimately, neither neo-mercantilism that supports ‘membership on equal terms and conditions’, nor Ha-vet that adopts the motto of ‘another globalisation and Europe is possible’, stands as an overall alternative.

This thesis aims to test and refine the theory of humanitarian war through the medium of a case study of the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999. Key research questions include: Is ‘humanitarian war’ a contradiction in terms? To what extent can military force be an appropriate and effective instrument for solving or averting humanitarian crises and ensuring respect for human rights? Is the concept, as some critics argue, too easily abused by powerful states seeking to justify wars fought for self-interested reasons? The thesis will look at the arguments of both proponents and critics of the concept of humanitarian war. The aim is to provide an immanent critique of the theory, judging it on its own terms; therefore when the arguments of critics are considered, the main emphasis will be on critics who come from within the liberal spectrum, rather than on realists or communitarians. It will examine the theory in terms of its three aspects- the jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum- with the aim of taking a ‘longer view’ of intervention than is often the case in the existing literature, viewing it not as a discrete event but as part of a complex long-term process. The case of Kosovo was chosen as a recent intervention that has often been cited as a good example of a humanitarian war, and one which most proponents of the concept supported, at least in principle.

Ulm, Univ. Diss., 2007.