Macedonia’s Long Transition From Independence to the Prespa Agreement and Beyond

This book provides a broad, interdisciplinary analysis of events impacting on North Macedonia since its independence, particularly during the last decade. In the past thirty years, the country has gone through deep political, social and economic transition, along with a name change from ‘Macedonia’ to the ‘Republic of North Macedonia’ following the Prespa Agreement signed with Greece. The contributors consider Macedonia’s challenges, its multi-ethnic make-up and its ambition to enter the European mainstream through the auspices of the European Union and NATO. The volume includes chapters on international politics and North Macedonia’s place in the region’s security architecture as well as the difficulties of the privatisation of socially owned enterprises, political corruption, state capture and backsliding. The book also covers the controversial ‘Skopje 2014’ project in addition to the impact of migration along the ‘Balkan Route’ and the current wranglings with Bulgaria over identitypolitics. 

1. Introduction.- 2. Macedonia’s Long Transition: An overview of the key issues.- 3. Macedonia’s Revolving Security Threats: Perpetual Instability on the Edge of Europe.- 4. The Impossible Reconciling of Historical Narratives: The Macedonian name dispute and prospects for the future.- 5. The Economic Transition of Macedonia.- 6.   Privatisation in Macedonia and Communities in Transition.- 7.  Political Parties and the Trials of Democracy.- 8.   Euro-Atlantic Integrations on Hold.- 9.  Migration Movements and their Implications for Macedonia.- 10.  The Identity Shift: Claims on Antiquity in Macedonian Fiction and Drama.- 11.  The Dissonant Narratives of the Skopje 2014 Project.- 12.    An Analysis of Bulgaria’s Rejection of the Macedonian Ethno-Linguistic Identity and its Implications.