Despite having a turbulent history as an interest sphere of external Great powers, the Western Balkans (WB) has been during the last twenty years most consistently and intensively influenced by the European Union (EU) – a sui generis foreign policy actor. EU’s enlargement policy enabled EU-WB states partnership. However, the technocratic EU accession process has diminished the effect of EU membership as a golden carrot. Additionally, high unemployment rates, general distrust in governance and the rule of law and unresolved inter-state disputes in the WB have created an open “playground” for other external actors (particularly non-Western) to offer a beneficial alternative to the WB states while at the same time trying to achieve their own foreign policy goals. Therefore, the goal of this master’s thesis is to verify the application of rational choice to foreign policy action among partner actors in an interest sphere when competition among external actors arises. The empirical focus is on the analysis of changes in costs and benefits of the EU accession process for the WB countries and for the EU in terms of economic, security, identity interest and domestic effects. The thesis demonstrates that internal and external crises that had struck the EU led to the fall of benefits of EU-WB partnership, not only for WB states but also for the EU itself. This situation has turned Russian, Chinese and Turkish benefits offered to WB states, especially economic ones, into an equally beneficial alternative to EU’s partnership, at least in the short-term.
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