Garčević Analyzes Shifting Power in the Balkans
Upon the invitation of the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), the largest undergraduate international relations program at Tufts University, and the Tufts Slavic and Eastern European Association, Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School, delivered a guest lecture on March 3 about the current state of geopolitics in the Balkans.
Addressing the role of global powers in the region, Ambassador Garcevic characterized the United States' approach as sporadic, driven by short-term interests, and focused more on stabilization than on a strategic response. This policy, described as "gradual disengagement," has been the result of several events in the region and around the world over the past 25 years: the end of the Yugoslav wars; the European Union's Thessaloniki Summit and the EU membership perspective offered to the region; the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia; and, finally, the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
With American interests shifting away from the region, the influence of the Russian Federation and China has gradually increased. He highlighted the role of the regional orthodox churches which serve as a powerful connector between the Russian Orthodox Church and the region by providing narratives aligned with the Kremlin's strategic interests.
According to Garcevic, the EU still possesses the strongest incentive – the EU membership perspective. Therefore, it should be more agile and more robustly involved in the regional affairs. Within the framework of the accession to the EU, for the regional EU candidates, Brussels should design particular, tailored programs with clear, measurable, achievable benchmarks coupled with gradual integration in the EU structure.
Vesko Garčević is a professor of the practice of international studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Europe. An expert on multilateral issues, Garčević is the co-author of Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce? (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) which explores the divergent past between Serbia and Montenegro between 1988 and 2023. To read more about his work and accomplishments, visit his faculty profile.
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