Serbia’s Balancing ACT: Between Russia and the West

The central country in the Western Balkans, Serbia puzzles observers by balancing its foreign policy between two competing great powers - Russia and the West. What drives a small country to behave like this? In this book, Vuk Vuksanovic explores the strategic trends which have shaped Serbian foreign policy, beginning in 2008, when the country’s international position was permanently changed by the global financial crisis and the unilateral declaration of independence by Serbia’s former province Kosovo. Vuksanovic also shows the domestic dynamic, shaping this policy, primarily the competition between Serbian political parties. Since then, this small Balkan country has become a tipping point between two external great powers against each other.

Demonstrating how this, and other major international developments have affected the country’s stance towards these great powers, including the Russian annexation of Crimea, Brexit, the migrant crisis, the rise and fall of Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic and the on-going war in Ukraine, Vuksanovic reveals how Serbia has placed itself at the centre of a deeply opportunistic and precariously balanced partnership, which impacts both its domestic and international policy in a multitude of ways.

Vuk Vuksanovic is a Senior Researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), Serbia, and an associate at LSE IDEAS, a foreign policy think-tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK.