With on-line journalism increasingly fostering a spirit of intolerance and unaccountability, more effective regulation – including the licensing of on-line journalists – needs to be considered as a potential remedy to hate speech on-line.

Whilst nationalism continues to rear its head in the former Yugoslavia, so language will continue to act as a divisive, as opposed to unifying, force.

Though Turkey – which is seeking to re-build its once flourishing Ottoman-era ties with most Balkan states – is increasingly portrayed as a reliable business partner, rather then an aggressive and neo-imperialist player, further steps are required to ease anxiety towards its policies.

Faced with outstanding conflicts over sovereignty in the Western Balkans, the EU’s most efficacious strategy depends upon acknowledging and leveraging its own considerable limitations as an international actor.

What happened to writers whose once-established literary and linguistic culture faced a campaign of obliteration, such as that conducted during the post-communist transition by secessionist elites and populists in the former Yugoslavia?

Reeling European governments and the Brussels bureaucracy will become even less patient than before in dealing with a region where their serial failures to enforce their myth of civic identity and multi-ethnic integration have undermined the narrative of Europe as a united, just, effective and relevant international actor.

Constructing creative and useful approaches to both former Ottoman peripheries – the Balkans and the Middle East – requires shedding tattered notions of Western “leadership” and recognizing opportunities inherent in the acknowledgement of one’s own limits.

While the EU is closing the final chapters of the accession negotiations with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro are keenly eyeing the prospect of becoming member candidates. However, can the EU integrate the whole region, including Kosovo and Bosnia?

Whilst business-related initiatives continue to drive regional and cross-border cooperation, politics and implementation capacity have failed to live-up to the standards expected by the plethora of international bodies engaged in strengthening this key area.

Settlements in Bosnia and Kosovo (the former is no more “settled” than the latter) are possible only if local contestants — who know each other so well — expel international mavens from their discussions and take each other on directly.