This book is the result of a research project designed and carried out at the Department of Architecture, University of Florence. This research was based on the transfer of knowledge from members of the Albanian Diaspora in Italy (university students, young architects and researchers) to their home country. This unique process blazed a trail in the Albania-related studies by creating a methodology, which could be replicated not only in Albanian rural contexts, but also elsewhere. The book constitutes a structured tool for generating sustainable and socially inclusive territorial development processes in five lesser-known Albanian cultural sites. Their tangible and intangible cultural heritage was seen as a driving factor for triggering development processes aimed at improving the inhabitants’ quality of life and strengthening local identity and social networks. Through concrete proposals and strategies, the book offers scenarios and solutions capable of enhancing the potential of each village and, at the same time, counteracting the effects of land abandonment that so often characterise them.

"The Past in Present Times exposes the violations of human rights, war crimes, and genocide during the rise of the former Yugoslavia during World War I, prior to and directly after World War II, the Yugoslav War, and the recent fall of the federation. In addition to the legal findings by the Nuremberg and Hague Tribunals, including the most recent trials, this legal-historical analysis reviews details of undisputed facts and recorded dialogues, which unveils surprising background information. As Dr. Lajco Klajn leads the reader along an historical line of events, he clarifies the factors and circumstances that led to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity while explaining the social, legal, historical, and moral consequences. Without forcing judgment about the past, Dr. Klajn exposes the roots of these conflicts and explains why if the roots are not eradicated, the conflicts may resurface in the future as a manifestation of even more monstrous wars and suffering as the past becomes the present once again."--BOOK JACKET.

Kosovo in the 1990s

The question of Kosovan sovereignty and independence has a history which stretches far back beyond the outbreak of war in 1998. This volume is a compilation of key documents on Kosovo from the first half of the twentieth century. These texts, including numerous diplomatic despatches from the British Foreign Office, deal initially with the Albanian uprising against Ottoman rule in the spring of 1912 and, in particular, with the period of the Serbian invasion of Kosovo in late 1912 and the repercussions of the conquest for the Albanian population. The documents from 1918 to the early 1920s focus mainly on endeavours by Albanian leaders, including those of the so-called Kosovo Committee in exile, to bring the plight of their people to the attention of the outside world - endeavours which largely failed. Further documents reflect the situation in Kosovo up to the outbreak of World War II. This collection provides new perspectives on the Kosovo question and includes many documents which have been largely unavailable up to now. It sheds new light on many of the major and minor episodes that channelled and determined subsequent events, including the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 and the declaration of independence in February 2008.

Parallel texts in English & French

The collapse of the communist monopoly across Central and Southeastern Europe in 1989-1990 initiated a process of rapid change. This updated second edition comprehensively describes the post-communist trajectory of the states of Central and Southeastern Europe, encompassing democratization, privatization, corruption, and war.