Abstract
Since the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the Western Balkans have steadily progressed on their path towards European integration, in accordance with the EU’s overarching strategy for conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the region. However, progress has been hampered by frozen conflicts and internal issues within and between countries in the region, occasionally stirred up by opportunist political leaders. Moreover, politics, economics and security spheres each in their own way pose significant challenges to the region’s stability.