The Great Power Game in the Balkans

The Balkans, mainly in the sense of the post-Yugoslavian states, but, in wider terms, also including Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, traditionally known as “Europe’s underbelly”, a “powder keg”, a “kettle” or even a ‘minefi eld’, are at the top of the agenda of the Great Powers once again. This is, it is argued in this study, mostly due to a new power confrontation and strategic rivalry or so-called Power Politics, initiated by the Trump administration in the US and, of course, the stunning rise of China. As result, we have a competition between four major players in the region, namely, the US, China, Russia, and the EU. Türkiye as a traditional power, is of course visible there as well, but is not as crucial. At stake is the question of who will prevail in the Balkans: NATO and the EU and the value-based order, or the new, non-liberal camp consisting of China and Russia? This the crux of the matter on the extant global scene, with the Balkans being one of the most important front lines of this so-called New Cold War, as the current situation is more and more frequently being described.