EU in the western Balkans: hybrid development, hybrid security and hybrid justice

This paper analyses multiple policy instruments and their effects in the Western Balkans from a conflict networks perspective, developed by the authors. The conflict network perspective is an agential approach to the effects of networks on peacebuilding outcomes that analyzes relations rather than actors or categories. It allows us to capture an enduring character of relations developed through war-time violence which are sustained and reworked in the context of a local political authority in response to the international peace-building efforts. The three case studies of hybrid development, hybrid security and hybrid justice, demonstrate how the EU policy produces three types of outcomes: subversion, unintended consequences and a qualified success, when it encounters a networked nature of the political authority. We conclude by reviewing the risks for the EU policy in the Balkans and identify policy implications.