Ambassador Vesko Garčević Analyzes Shifting Power in the Balkans

[Miroslav Antic]

bu.edu<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/2026/03/11/garcevic-analyzes-shifting-power-in-the-balkans/>
Garčević Analyzes Shifting Power in the Balkans
~3 minutes
________________________________
[https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/files/2026/02/20260211_VeskoGarcevic_0007-200x300.jpg]Ambassador
 Vesko Garčević

Upon the invitation of the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the 
Services (ALLIES), the largest undergraduate international relations program at 
Tufts University, and the Tufts Slavic and Eastern European Association, 
Ambassador Vesko 
Garčević<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/vesko-garcevic/>, Professor of 
the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School, delivered a guest 
lecture on March 3 about the current state of geopolitics in the Balkans.

Addressing the role of global powers in the region, Ambassador Garcevic 
characterized the United States’ approach as sporadic, driven by short-term 
interests, and focused more on stabilization than on a strategic response. This 
policy, described as “gradual disengagement,” has been the result of several 
events in the region and around the world over the past 25 years: the end of 
the Yugoslav wars; the European Union’s Thessaloniki Summit and the EU 
membership perspective offered to the region; the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 
Serbia; and, finally, the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

With American interests shifting away from the region, the influence of the 
Russian Federation and China has gradually increased. He highlighted the role 
of the regional orthodox churches which serve as a powerful connector between 
the Russian Orthodox Church and the region by providing narratives aligned with 
the Kremlin’s strategic interests.

According to Garcevic, the EU still possesses the strongest incentive – the EU 
membership perspective. Therefore, it should be more agile and more robustly 
involved in the regional affairs. Within the framework of the accession to the 
EU, for the regional EU candidates, Brussels should design particular, tailored 
programs with clear, measurable, achievable benchmarks coupled with gradual 
integration in the EU structure.

V<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/vesko-garcevic/>esko 
Garčević<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/vesko-garcevic/> is a 
professor of the practice of international studies at the Frederick S. Pardee 
School of Global Studies<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/> and the director of 
the Center for the Study of Europe<https://www.bu.edu/european/>. An expert on 
multilateral issues, Garčević is the co-author of Montenegro and Serbia: A 
Velvet 
Divorce?<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/montenegro-and-serbia-9781350266179/> 
(Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) which explores the divergent past between Serbia 
and Montenegro between 1988 and 2023. To read more about his work and 
accomplishments, visit his faculty 
profile<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/vesko-garcevic/>.

View all posts<https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/pardeepride/news-2/>

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