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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.

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List of Tables Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Abbreviations Civil Society and Multiple Transitions: Meanings, Roles and Effects; D.Kostovicova & V.Bojicic-Dzelilovic PART I: STATE-BUILDING The European Commission, Enlargement Policy and Civil Society in the Western Balkans; J.O´Brennan Civil Society and ´Good Governance´ in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia: An Assessment of EU Assistance and Intervention; A.Fagan Contesting the Rule of Law: Civil Society and Legal Institutions; I.Rangelov A Practitioner´s Viewpoint; G.Venneri PART II: DEMOCRATISATION Democratisation Through Defiance? The Albanian Civil Organisation ´Self-Determination´ and International Supervision in Kosovo; S.Schwandner-Sievers Nationalism and Civil Society Organisations in Post-Independence Kosovo; F.Strazzari & E.Selenica The Diaspora Dilemma: Croatian-American Civil Society Institutions and their Political Role in the Democratisation of the Homeland; A.Brkanic From Post-Communist to Uncivil Society in Macedonia; N.Markovic A Practitioner´s Perspective; J.Hanson PART III: POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION Civil Society and the Bosnian Police Certification Process: Challenging ´the Guardians´; G.Collantes-Celador The Paradox of Demobilising a Civil Protection Actor: Build-up and Stand-down of the KPC in Kosovo; J.Narten Serbian Civil Society as an Exclusionary Space: NGOs, the Public and ´Coming to Terms with the Past´; J.Obradovic-Wochnik Facing the Past While Disregarding the Present? Human Rights NGOS and Truth-Telling in Post-Milosevic Serbia; M.Ostojic A Practitioner´s Perspective; F.Hartmann Conclusion; J.Ker-Lindsay Index

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"The book mainly deals with the postwar or post-conflict social reconstruction/development in different countries and the role of civil society in that development. ... The book certainly has many qualities and will attract a wide readership." (Sinisa Zrinscak, Southeastern Europe, Vol. 40 (1), 2016)

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VESNA BOJICIC-DZELILOVIC is Senior Research Fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the Department of International Development and the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

JAMES KER-LINDSAY is Eurobank EFG Senior Research Fellow on the Politics of South East-Europe at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

DENISA KOSTOVICOVA is Senior Lecturer in Global Politics at the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

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