Critical Review of the Icg Report Will the Real Serbia Please Stand Up?

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 1, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Institut fur Politikwissenschaften), course: Crisis in Eastern Europe and the EU’s response, language: English, abstract: This term paper critically reviews the International Crisis Group report Will the Real Serbia Please Stand up? from April 2008. The report was published two months after Kosovo declared its independence and the subsequent rioting and looting in Belgrade. Section 2 briefly introduces the ICG and presents two main criticisms which concern the institution’s organisational structure as well as its reports. In Section 3.1 I will summarise the situation in Serbia according to the above-named report and portray the conflicts about the Kosovo-question and Serbia’s EU-membership. The two opposing camps of pro-EU and anti-EU-parties will be presented and the viewpoints of their respective leaders Tadic and Kostunica will be discussed. As the report was published before the early election in May 2008, Section 3 will be complemented with the outcome of it and an analysis of the results. What follows is an analysis of ICG’s issues of concern and the resultant policy recommendations; in particular the recommendation to the European Union not to sign a Stability and Association Agreement with Serbia. Section 4 will summarise the paper and add concluding remarks.