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Diffusion, contestation and localisation in post-war states: 20 years of Western Balkans reconstruction

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Abstract

This special issue explores norm diffusion, contestation and localisation in the contexts of political transition in general and post-war peacebuilding specifically. It engages with critical moments in which international diffusion endeavours meet local politics of norm contestation in societies undergoing post-war and/or post-authoritarian transitions. The ‘third wave’ of norm research offers an agency-based approach to the negotiation and contestation of the meaning of norms that is consistent with work in peacebuilding studies on the meeting between international norms and local realities in post-war contexts. By honing in on the ‘normative powers’ of local agents, their perspectives and capacities, and how these contribute to norm construction, the special issue provides theoretical and conceptual advances to capture these transition processes in the context of the Western Balkans.

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Notes

  1. We leave the discussion on the nature of norms to the contributors of this special issue, but we take note that different understandings are of essence, ranging from bounded rationality, where norms are seen as causes that create an effect, that is, norms as ‘collective expectations for the proper behaviour of actors with a given identity’ (Katzenstein 1996: 6; see also Finnemore and Sikkink 1998), to post-structuralist accounts, where norms are fundamentally constructing interest and are thus ‘symbolic technologies’, which are ‘themselves forms of power through their capacities to produce representations’ (Laffey and Weldes 1997: 210), thereby treating norms as processes rather than a ‘cause’, emphasising how ‘norms are subject to ongoing attempts to reconstitute their meanings’ (Krook and True 2012: 109).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole, 50014, Italy

    Simone Tholens

  2. Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Konstanz, P.O. Box 86, Konstanz, D-78457, Germany

    Lisa Groß

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  1. Simone Tholens
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  2. Lisa Groß
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Tholens, S., Groß, L. Diffusion, contestation and localisation in post-war states: 20 years of Western Balkans reconstruction. J Int Relat Dev 18, 249–264 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.21

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