Early Birds, Late Risers, and Sleeping Beauties: Bank Credit Growth to the Private Sector in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans

This chapter explains the process of peaceful change in Central and Eastern Europe following the demise of the Soviet system. It also explains the failure of peaceful change in the Balkans and some post-Soviet countries, such as the Ukrainian conflict in 2014. The chapter accounts for the conditions for peaceful change and for the variation between peaceful and violent change by the state-to-nation theory. The two independent variables suggested by the theory are the level of state capacity and congruence—namely the compatibility between state borders and the national identities of the countries at stake. Moreover, according to the theory, great-power engagement serves as an intervening variable and in some conditions, as explained in the chapter, may help with peaceful change.

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Credit Growth in Central and Eastern Europe: New (Over)Shooting Stars?

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.936896 ◽

2006 ◽

Author(s):

Balazs Egert ◽

Peter Backe ◽

Tina Zumer

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Credit Growth

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THE INITIATIVE «ONE BELT, ONE ROAD» AND THE BALKANS: THE ASSESSMENTS OF THE EXPERT COMMUNITY AND THE MEDIA OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (2017-2020)

Urgent Problems of Europe ◽

10.31249/ape/2021.02.03 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 59-83

Author(s):

Artem Ulunyan

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Global Strategy ◽

Eastern European ◽

The Balkans ◽

One Belt One Road ◽

Wide Range ◽

Atlantic Community ◽

Expert Community ◽

Party State

The article examines the assessments of the global strategic concept «One Belt, One Road» of the PRC by the representatives of the Central and Eastern European expert community and by the Albanian media. After the Cold War, the formation processes of national states in the post-Yugoslavian space have started in the Balkans, and the region has come under tight probe of the Euro-Atlantic community, of Russia and Turkey as well as of the Peoples Republic of China, which had not displayed earlier such a keen interest in this region. In the context of the global strategy outlined by the party-state leadership of mainland China, the Balkans and Central Eastern Europe have turned into important connecting link in the Chinese geostrategic concept «One Belt, One Road». In the 2010 s, the PRC has begun to establish a wide-range network of transport corridors, designed to start a «new edition» of the historical «Silk Road» and to serve as an instrument for the economic advancement of the PRC on a transcontinental scale. This policy of economic expansion of the PRC, encompassing regions and continents on its way, is being actively discussed in the expert community of Central and Eastern European states from the standpoint of identifying both specific mode of actions engaged by the party-state leadership of the PRC, as well as local conditions, interests and probable results of the implementation of the Chinese project. The author notes that expert assessments range from positive to sharply negative, which indicates the absence of a definitive opinion on this issue. In Albania, a Balkan state closely linked to both Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, especially due to the presence of a large Albanian ethnic component in a number of countries of the region, the participation in the implementation of the project «One Belt, One Road» was strongly influenced by economic and political relations with the Euro-Atlantic community.

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