Recent weeks have brought a number of stories suggesting intensified contact between politicians from the Balkans and the American far right.
They follow meetings between the former (and possibly current) Trump strategist Steve Bannon and Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Željka Cvijanović, between Bannon and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and between Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president’s mercurial national security advisor, John Bolton.
Such events have taken on greater significance given the background – an apparent sudden shift in US policy towards supporting territorial exchanges as part of a settlement between Serbia and Kosovo, and a plan by Bannon to coordinate a campaign for the ethno-nationalists he calls „populists“ across Europe.
Dacic declared that, in comparison to previous US administrations, the Trump presidency seemed „more attuned to our positions“ and „demonstrates better understanding of our views.“
Does this point to a major shift under way, with an institution-destroying US administration set to establish new precedents in the Balkans by cultivating the demands of ethno-nationalists in the hope of replacing European moderation with its vision of ‘populism’?
A number of factors are contributing to the flowering of this alliance, but there are limiting factors too.
Power of personality
If there is one characteristic that distinguishes Trump’s conduct of international policy, it is his deep distrust of the professional civil service, what he erroneously describes as the ‘deep state.’ He has systematically sidelined the Department of State, putting it under the stewardship of inexperienced officials who have overseen a massive exodus of specialist personnel.
In place of experts, policy has been placed in the hands of a few trusted individuals, most of them based in the White House itself. What this means in practice is that the administration is circumventing the established practices of formal and professional decision-making accompanied by public and legislative oversight, and attempting to replace them with informal channels of policy-making.
The people occupying these positions of informal decision-making authority are there by virtue of their personal relationships with Trump. They include his relative Kushner, the outre ideologist Bolton and, until he was compelled to depart because evidence arose of his unregistered activity as a foreign agent, the retired general Michael Flynn.
For more read the full of article at The Balkaninsight
