Southeast Europe Unit

The Southeast Europe Unit was officially launched in November 1996. The Unit consists of two directors, Kyril Drezov and Bülent Gökay, and a wider circle of Balkan specialists at Keele.  Its members research various aspects of the remaking of Southeast Europe in the wake of the collapse of communism in the east, and in the context of an ongoing integration with the west.

The Unit regularly welcomes visiting speakers, some of whom have come from Australia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Turkey. More than 40 visiting speakers had presented at the Unit since 1996.

Examples of the Unit’s international conference activities are the hosting at Keele of a series of seminars and open debates on the 1999 war over Kosovo, a workshop on The Fragmentation of Yugoslavia: Ethnicity and the State, a conference on The Image of the Turk in Europe, a workshop on the 2014 events in Ukraine, and a workshop on the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. 

Both Kyril Drezov and Bülent Gökay have been active in co-organising conferences outside Keele, in Cambridge, Oxford, Wilton Park, at SSEES and LSE in London and other venues.

The Unit offers an expertise on Balkan affairs that is in many respects unique in the UK, in particular as concerns Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey’s relations with Europe, and Russia’s links with Balkan countries. Holders of conferences on health, business, local government, and security issues have invited its members to provide expert background information. The Unit is willing to provide individual consultation for business and other interests in the region. 

For more information view our Southeast Europe Unit.