Artan Hoxha

The second half of the 1980s marked a peak in regional cooperation in the Balkans. Albania, which until then had refused to participate in any of the initiatives in which its neighbors were involved, joined the pack. The death of Albania’s strongman ruler Enver Hoxha in 1985 brought to an end a foreign policy nurtured by messianic visions that neglected geography. His successor, Ramiz Alia, began gradually opening Albania to multilateral collaboration at regional level. Tirana was not alone in making this smooth turn, however. Exhaustion with the appeal of universalist ideologies prompted political leaderships around the Balkans to rediscover the region—a critical conjuncture that remains understudied. Artan Hoxha’s project will highlight how and why the efforts to establish a Balkan space defied ideological divisions and fostered cooperation, taking inspiration and emulating to a degree the template offered by the European Community. However, the ethno-nationalist tensions fostered over the years meant that it was too late for Albania and other countries in the region to successfully reintegrate.