The German hegemony in the western Balkans within the framework of international political economy

The western Balkans is a region that throughout history has been the field of the competition of great powers and of power games. Many hegemonies have been established in this region and even more conflicts have taken place, with Germany to play an important role in most of them. Despite the past and the recent destruction that finished in 1999, the western Balkans appearing stable enough and ready to integrate into the West. Nevertheless, the terms of this integration as well as the historical experience create questions that this research comes to answer. In particular, this thesis focuses on the role of Germany in this region and secondly on the role of the EU in the western Balkans and tries to explore whether there is a German hegemony. Furthermore, we are trying to identify the role of the European Union in the establishment of an hegemony and whether the European Union represents a tool for the promotion of certain interests in the western Balkans. As it would be obvious later, the kind of hegemony that is explored has politico-economic nature and operates at elite level. For this purpose, we will rely on the neo-Gramscian theory of hegemony. Finally, and in order to prove our case, we will conduct the research with the use of Serbia, Albania and FYR Macedonia as case studies.