Diasporas and the war - Kosovo's giant

Dear Friends of ESI,

ESI seeks to build bridges between the academic and the Balkan policy communities.

Policy makers everywhere are busy people. Many who work in the field in Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje, Belgrade and in national capitals across the EU have little time and leisure to read books or long articles.

The ESI BRIDGES project is addressed to the busy policy maker, who still wants to know the background to Balkan developments.

It highlights - in a selective manner reflecting our own experience - books and articles which we find rewarding and which are not yet widely known. It makes excerpts of such research available on our website to the almost 10,000 people who regularly receive ESI reports.

The first book we highlight is by ESI analyst Paul Hockenos. Paul looks at the role of Balkan diasporas during the wars of the 1990s. The book, just published by Cornell University Press, is certain to provoke a wider debate. A full chapter is available on our website.

The second text is an investigation commissioned by the LLA/ESI and based on documents seized by KFOR in the Trepca company offices in 2000 of the recent history of Kosovo's most famous enterprise: Trepca, Kosovo's giant. It, too, is certain to provoke debate.

In 2004 ESI will systematically highlight interesting books and articles on Balkan developments and make excerpts and summaries available on our website.

We want to thank all of our supporters and particularly our readers for their support in 2003 and wish everyone a happy 2004.

See you in early 2004 on our website, as always, www.esiweb.org.

Your ESI team