Middle East “Expansion” into the Balkans

Middle Eastern players have been involved in the “Balkan game” at different times, but since the 1990s, all the key actors in the Islamic pool have been present on the regional agenda. They are most active in countries outside the EU political framework – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and the partially recognised polity of Kosovo. At this stage, they are not entering into open competition for influence in the Western Balkans with the established leaders ‒ the EU, USA, Russia, UK and China but are actively increasing their presence. The main areas of penetration remain economic (especially the monarchies of the Persian Gulf – UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain), cultural-ideological (Turkey and Iran), and religious (all Middle Eastern players). The nature of relations between external players in the Balkans is adversarial. Their strategies vary but have common features: the almost simultaneous start of promotion in the region, the initial focus on local Muslim communities and the subsequent departure from the imperative of unity of faith, similar industries and methods of implementation, common risks and problems associated with them. For the most part, preference in bilateral interaction with the countries of the region is given to personal connections to the detriment of institutional, investment, and economic initiatives to the detriment of diplomatic work. Collaborative projects often lack transparency and are vulnerable to criticism and interference from more powerful external actors. However, the “soft power” policy of eastern actors is flexible and adaptive, which ensures their further consolidation in the Western Balkans.

Western Balkans, Middle East actors, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, influence strategies, Islam in the Balkans, the Middle East “soft power”