At 32, Mart Laar set out to defy the Soviet model, armed with one economics book, Free to Choose, and the conviction that all Marxist texts were wrong. The result was Estonia, a modern state built in record time. Happy Restoration of Independence Day #Estonia 🇪🇪!

Meine Rezension zu @gezimvisoka.bsky.social Buch “The Derecognition of States” ist soeben in @sudosteuropa.bsky.social Mitteilungen (04/2025) erschienen. Das Buch bietet eine wegweisende Analyse der Aberkennung als diplomatische Praxis, die Staaten mit begrenzter Anerkennung prägt.

And also my other article published in the Journal of European Integration History:
“Navigating Kosovo’s International Organisations Membership: Assessing EU Member States’ Shifting Positions”. www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/10.5771/0...

Here you can find my recently published article in the European Review of International Studies:
“Performing Sovereignty: Kosovo and the Strategies of International Integration for States with Limited Recognition”. brill.com/view/journal...

Robert C. Austin’s “Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania’s First and Last King” is a well-summarized account of a critical period in Albanian history. While engaging, it doesn’t offer new insights beyond existing scholarship. A good read, but not groundbreaking.

Coffee, a book, and #Prishtina’s everyday buzz. Simple moments.

Culture shapes geopolitics. Prussia’s wars with Russia coexisted with shared ties, like czarist commanders of Prussian origin. As U.S. commitment to Europe wavers, Germany’s path becomes uncertain—caught between history, identity, and shifting alliances.

As the year ends, I’m looking back on the books I read and revisited in 2024. From tech and politics to history and fiction, here’s my 2024 reading list.

The resistance of Kosovo Albanians against Yugoslavia unfolded in 3 phases: pre-1989 illegal resistance, Rugova’s peaceful reistance (1989), and the political-military struggle by the KLA. Without Rugova and the KLA, Kosovo’s history wouldn’t be what we know today.

Rugova gave the Albanian majority in Kosovo a vision of independence & belief after a century of tyranny & repression. When Kosovo’s communist Albanian leadership abandoned the people, Rugova stepped in as political voice, transforming dream of freedom into a political vision.

35 years ago, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) was founded—the first Albanian democratic political party in Southeast Europe & the largest political movement in Kosovo’s history. Under Ibrahim Rugova’s leadership, it internationalized Kosovo’s struggle & laid foundations for independence.