Author Archives: Jakob Modéer

A visit to the port of Durres, on the Albanian coast, should be a regular visit for students in urban planning and tourism development. Most of what can go wrong in the dash for quick cash has done so in … Continue reading →

Why politicians love infrastructure development The roads in Bulgaria are in a notoriously bad state, to the extent that the casual visitor may be forgiven to think he is in rural Africa, rather than in a EU members state. The … Continue reading →

The way in For ten years leading up to formal EU membership in 2007, Bulgaria sent well-educated, female foreign ministers to negotiate with Brussels. Their mission was to improve Bulgaria’s negative image abroad, to replace the old stereotype of Bulgaria … Continue reading →

In recent times, few countries have received more financial support per capita by the international donor community than Kosovo. Since the NATO bombings and consequent defeat of Serb troops in 1999, Kosovo has been “ruled” and “supported” by a series … Continue reading →

Many small wrong decisions make for a bad Balkan soup Back in the early 1990’s I studied Russian and East European history and politics under Kristian Gerner at Lund University. A map in one of his books branded the Balkans … Continue reading →