Okay, first thought: there is not going to be a “Greater Albania” in the political sense.
The Albanians of Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia are evolving away from political union, not towards it. Kosovo’s new Constitution has “no union with any other state” as Article One, and that’s not just wallpaper for the internationals; [...]

As you all know, the Olympic torch barely made it through London. And the Chinese are pissed off about it. IOC president Jacques Rogge was not pleased either. From BBC News
“Violence for whatever reason is not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games,” he said.
Okay, first question for our readers [...]

In less than a week Italy will be holding a general election three years ahead of schedule, but before I explain how the upcoming vote may lead to another gridlock, I believe an introduction is in order. My name is Manuel Alvarez-Rivera and I’m the webmaster of Election Resources on the [...]

At the risk of too much Bush-blogging, one has to wonder about the irritation level in Athens as George Bush continues to make the case for Macedonia’s admission to NATO, even against the backdrop described by Doug Muir over the last week. Here he is in St Mark’s Square in Zagreb –

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Not quite our namesake, but a fistful of these will be pretty darn cool, too.
(Thanks to Making Light for the tip and the title. A Slovene cent turned up in my change the other day; no sign yet of Cypriot or Maltese euros.)

George Bush to Romanian Prime Minister Popescu-Tariceanu right before his departure for Zagreb –
I also congratulate the Prime Minister on having a 16 percent flat tax. I’m a little envious. I would like to have been able to achieve the same objective for our tax code, and it was a smart thing to get done, [...]

The Hague has acquitted former Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj of various horrible war crimes.
This is not much of a surprise. One, while the case against the KLA leadership generally is pretty strong, the case against Haradinaj personally wasn’t so much. Two, Haradinaj put up an aggressive and very competent defense. And three, [...]

AFOE readers interested in following the fallout from the resignation of Taoiseach (PM) Bertie Ahern and not familiar with the usual Irish sources may want to consult my post a couple of days ago for a little background (mostly in the Lisbon context) and then head to RTE, the Irish Times, and the Irish Election [...]

…I’m getting rather worried about the normally reliable B92. Doug M expertly dissected the organ-legging story a week or so ago; I’ve just come across this article from 26 March reporting on a UN document describing Kosovo as the “heart of [the] Balkan drug route”. Alarming stuff - essentially confirms the rumours and prejudices of [...]

One section of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s briefing for the media with George Bush today amply reveals the fissures in his country; are there other examples where the issue of NATO membership, even in a long time horizon, cuts to the core of competing national identities in the way he describes?

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