This book examines the ambiguous role played by civil society in state-building, democratization and post-conflict reconstruction in the Western Balkans. In doing so, it challenges the received wisdom that civil society is always a force for good. Civil society actors have helped create the conditions for new, more constructive relations inside and between former Yugoslav countries. But, their agency has also rekindled nationalism hindering efforts to rebuild the region after the conflicts of the 1990s. The book demonstrates that diverse civil society effects cannot be captured without querying both the nature of civil society and the complexity of the ongoing transformation. So how can the emancipatory role of civil society be harnessed? This rigorous case study-driven reappraisal of the ability of civil society to support progressive transformation from an illiberal regime to democracy and from conflict to peace will be a valuable resource to scholars and practitioners alike.

This work traces the attempts by the United Nations to bring about the reunification of Cyprus prior to the island's accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. In addition to charting the course of previous efforts to solve the Cyprus issue, the book recounts the direct discussions between the two sides from January 2002 through to April 2004 and analyses the reasons why the UN plan was rejected in a referendum.

This book explores the ambiguous role played by civil society in the processes of state-building, democratization and post-conflict reconstruction in the Western Balkans challenging the assumption that civil society is always a force for good by analysing civil society actors and their effects in post-communist and post-conflict transition.

The United Nations has rarely been given a fair hearing with regard to its work in Cyprus. Despite competing demands for its limited resources being challenged by the local parties and at the mercy of contradictory political directions at the international level, the UN has actually achieved more than is generally realized. This is the first volume to critically appraise all the major areas of the UN's peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace building activities in Cyprus.