When Kosovar Albanians came to Albania after the fall of Communism, they were surprised to find an impoverished motherland whose people were consumed with questions of basic survival. Albania's citizens, for their part, were dumbstruck by the relatively opulent lifestyles of the Kosovars. Yet despite their profound differences, the myth of a "Greater Albania" persists. In this timely book, Paulin Kola challenges this myth, arguing that there is not widespread support for a "Greater Albania" among the Albanian-speaking peoples. He shows that Albanians do not wish to join a single, politically recognized entity and demonstrates how the Albanians are marked by ideological, religious, and other divisions. While a "Greater Kosovo" remains a remote possibility, there is little chance of the Albanians of either Albania or the diaspora supporting moves to dissolve the present international borders in pursuit of an "Albanian homeland." Albanians appear content to retain their discrete political entities, while traveling and trading freely. Accessible and urgent, this book effectively puts to rest the cherished myths of Albanian nationalism.

In this topical text Paulin Kola challenges the accepted notion that there is widespread support for a Greater Albania among the Albanian-speaking peoples of the Balkans, and argues that Albanians do not wish to join a single, politically-recognized entity. He explains how the Albanians are marked by ideological, religious and other divisions, many of which were exacerbated by their differing reactions to nationalism, as experienced in Tito's Yugoslavia and Hoxha's Albania.

The Second World War in Europe has generated more literature than perhaps any other event in modern history. Much of the interest has focused on military history, occupation policy, puppet governments, and resistance movements in Europe's principal states. Often ignored in this flood of material, however, are the small nations of southeastern Europe. Yet in the small states the human suffering was no less profound, the destruction no less devastating, the heroism no less laudable, the treachery no less despicable, and the impact no less profound. Albania at War reviews the most important developments in Albania from the Italian invasion of the country in 1939 to the accession to power of the Albanian Communist Party and the establishment of a "people's democracy" in 1946. Fischer analyzes in great detail Italian goals and objectives in Albania and explains the eventual failure of Rome's policy, the subsequent German invasion of the country against the Axis Powers. This unique path breaking book provides a vigorous and thought-provoking analysis of competing external interests in Albania and explores the great obstacles that the Albanians faced in regaining their independence at the end of the war. Albania at War, 1939-1945 thoroughly covers the developments in Albania during that turbulent period. It is essential reading for all students of Albanian history.

In order to know what the Albanian National Question (ANQ) is, one should learn it not from what its neighbors, namely Serbia and Greece, have to say, but from a more direct and reliable source, the voice of the Albanians themselves. No nation is in a position in which it can express in a realistic way the needs, the rights and aspirations of a different nation in the same way as an individual cannot be an exact representative for someone but himself. For many years the Western countries used to rely on either Serbian or Greek lenses for the ANQ. In the late 1990s the U.S.-led intervention against Serbia over Kosova on humanitarian grounds and the Albanian insurgency in Macedonia has contributed to an altered power balance in the region. The neighbors frightened by the power shift in the Southern Balkans use their propaganda machinery to express the danger posed by the alleged Greater Albania scheme in order to demonize and morally downgrade the ANQ. However, one can easily see that Albanians since the creation of their state have not, are not, and will not pursue an irredentist agenda toward their neighbors.

In this topical text Paulin Kola challenges the accepted notion that there is widespread support for a Greater Albania among the Albanian-speaking peoples of the Balkans, and argues that Albanians do not wish to join a single, politically-recognized entity. He explains how the Albanians are marked by ideological, religious and other divisions, many of which were exacerbated by their differing reactions to nationalism, as experienced in Tito's Yugoslavia and Hoxha's Albania.

When will Albania join the EU? Will accession help Albania to achieve prosperity, stability and prosperity? And, what factors are helping it towards this end and what factors are holding it back? An original study of Albania and its relations with the EU, this is the first book to identify and analyse the problems of the country as it moves towards membership of the Union. It explores the political, economic and social transformations needed to make Albanian membership possible. The authors highlight the enormous democratic changes that have occurred in post-communist Albania, as well as the many obstacles that still remain. This balanced and objective assessment will be an essential resource for everyone interested in the history and future of the Balkans and the EU.

Twentieth-century Southeastern Europe endured three, separate decades of international and civil war, and was marred in forced migration and wrenching systematic changes. This book is the result of a year-long project by the Open Society Institute to examine and reappraise this tumultuous century. A cohort of young scholars with backgrounds in history, anthropology, political science, and comparative literature were brought together for this undertaking. The studies invite attention to fascism, socialism, and liberalism as well as nationalism and Communism. While most chapters deal with war and confrontation, they focus rather on the remembrance of such conflicts in shaping today's ideology and national identity. "This ably edited volume dealing with twentieth-century southeastern Europe is most welcome. ...the project coorrdinators came to an agreement with their collaborators to foicus on nationalis, communism, fascism, liberalism, and religion. And indeed, all of these elements may be found between the covers of this volume, although the contributors were evidently given free rein. ...this volume offers insights into some neglected areas and is a most welcome addition to the literature on the history of East Central Europe." - The American Historical Review "A truly unique and splendid addition to historical writing on southeastern Europe... Unique is the editors' insistence that each author include several translated primary sources. The diversity of sources is unrivaled by any documentary reader available to those of us who teach European, east European or Balkan history." - Slavic Review

Written by an insider and Albania enthusiast, the Bradt guide to Albania takes a fresh look at how and where to explore the heritage of this hidden corner of eastern Europe.

Twelve centuries of endless warfare by Vatican’s high priests and their associates, the international banking nobility, are concentrated to subdue the Christian Orthodox Peoples into some new order of things. The erroneously touted “age-old animosities in the Balkans” is a fiction of age-old alien enemies. The conflict in the Serbian lands and the rest of the Balkans today is a mini pre-image of the coming Great Secular War III. The coming collapse of Vaticanism, Scottish-Grand-Orient Freemasonry, Zionism-Massoreticism, Debt-Banking, Oil Power, and Muslimism is heralded. Jugoslavia bravely resists their lackeys, the “Military-Industrial-Church Complex,” in turn using NATO as their front, as their mighty image and prestige is exposed and scattered to the winds.