As one of the hotspots of the world in the last decade of the 1990s the Western Balkans required energetic Western engagement designed primarily to settle the conflicts and then to guide the nations in the region in creating and sustaining democratic political institutions which were expected to cushion intra-national tensions and to serve to the normalization of inter-state relations. However, despite almost two-decade-long Western guidance, assistance and conditionality, as many experts point out, the Western Balkans is still an...