Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

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unsafe for Albanians to go into Mitrovica north I was told on several occasions that the Albanian construction workers are completely safe there. The Serbian majority is dependent on them for cheap and skilled labour. The same goes for trade, within trade contact is completely safe: they need each other for their jobs. This is interdependence. Some authors have argued that it is hard to determine causality regarding the trade part of the Kantian peace theory. Do states have good relations because they engage in trade or do they engage in trade because they have or pursue good relations? While their argument stands, the Kosovo-Serbia relation is a quite interesting case in this. Keshk, Pollins & Reuveny (2004) argument that levels of trade are only high between states because those states have good relations does not fly for the relations between Serbia and Kosovo. The relations between the government in Belgrade and the government in Pristina are bad, to put it mildly. Serbia is even actively promoting bad relations with the government in Pristina, mainly aimed at denying its (legal) existence. The trade flows between the two territories are huge though, and based on these Serbia can be considered to be Kosovo's largest trading partner. So despite the efforts of both governments not to engage in any kind of relations, on the ground this situation is completely different. People engage in trade contact on a large scale. It is unclear to what extend this is inter-ethnic contact because many Albanians are living in Serbia proper and many Serbs are living in Kosovo, but this is irrelevant for my argument here. The point I'm trying to make is that on a state level the Kantian peace theory does not apply at all on the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia, no matter which direction of causality is considered. This is another argument for my case that the Kantian peace theory needs to be expanded to the micro level instead of merely focussing on the macro level. While on a macro level the situation is opposite of what the trade aspect of the Kantian peace theory predicts (terrible inter-state relations combined with very high levels of trade) on a micro level there seem to be plenty of indicators that the same theory does apply, which was demonstrated in the results section. Of course, the inter-ethnic relations on the ground are almost as bad as the inter-state relations but traders are the exception here as they seem to be operating under peaceful conditions, while trusting their colleagues of the other ethnic group in their business. In short, what is happening on a state or macro level is very different from what is happening on an individual or micro level, especially in Mitrovica. This is an area where the Kantian peace theory can be expanded because not only does this lower layer provide extra information, it can also provide completely new applications for this theory such as inter-ethnic trust building, for example. So far the purely economic argument. During the theoretical framework it has been discussed how Blanton (2006) argues that trade is more than just trade flows. His argument was targeted at the Kantian peace theory and therefore he was referring to states, which is why it not entirely applicable to this thesis and research. But out of his four points three can be directly related to inter-ethnic trade as well: First, inter-ethnic trade also encourages the trading and sharing of information as well as transparency between parties. This can be seen by the example of traders calling and checking up on each other, even during the crisis with the riots of 81
2004. Second, Blanton argues that "Trade creates expectations of compliance and willingness across a group of states". That this also applies to inter-ethnic trade between individuals can be seen by such quotes from traders as "so far they haven't led me down" and "they don't lie" as well as the reported levels of trust present between traders. Third, "Trade has cultural externalities" (Blanton, 2006), seems also applicable to interethnic trade in Mitrovica. There is social interaction between these traders of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, although little details are known about this. But I believe one prime example of this would be the trader who told me that his Albanian colleague comes to north-Mitrovica to eat pork meat with him. Blanton's fourth point " Trade encourages the broader expansion of economic ties." could also be valid for inter-ethnic trade but I simply have a lack of information to judge this. All these points would contribute to the establishment of a security community according to Blanton. As a security community can refer to groups as well as states, I would argue that these three points are three indicators more that the Kantian peace theory can be applied to inter-ethnic groups and Albanian and Serbian traders in Mitrovica specifically. My last argument for expanding the Kantian peace theory is that this theory is already applied in policies on a micro level (Andreas, 2004), without any evidence. Because the "trade brings peace" argument is so well known, and perhaps even embedded in the cultural mindset of many individuals from western-capitalist societies it is almost automatically applied by some policy makers. When applied to relations between states this is very legit, because of the obvious scientific support for the theory. When applied on ethnic groups this is more dangerous because of the complete lack on scientific information on the subject. This calls for a thorough investigation of the "trade brings peace" argument applied to ethnic groups because of two reasons. First, The theory already being applied in this context shows that it has practical use. Second, the effectiveness of policies should be tested whenever possible because it could lead to more effective decision making. In relation to Kosovo and other criminalised economies (which are especially in conflict-studies not a rare occurrence) extra attention should be given to illegal trade because it's effects could be very different from its legal counterpart. If more research would find that trade between ethnic groups can indeed improve relations this would have important policy implications for Kosovo and would lead to the next question: can trade be promoted, and how? Specific for Kosovo is the dilemma that people are sick of the word 'inter-ethnic' and anything that tries to improve relations. This is one of the reasons subsidising cooperation has failed. People would just find a way to get the money but not have to work together, apart from this it also frustrated them because again they were feeling forced to like their enemies (CARE, 2006). Second is an more general economic argument, worded by one of my respondents “The invisible hand cannot be guided, only obstructed”. The market cannot be controlled, people will go where the money goes so promotion of trade directly will be very difficult. People will go where there is money to be gained. If there is nothing to be gained no amount of promotion will help. If there is something to be gained, no promotion is needed. So, a direct promotion of 82
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Nijmegen School of Management, Radb
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION “Sixteen
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Governmental Organisations (IGO's)
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1.4. Thesis organisation - Short ou
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I learned a lot from it, as I found
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Of the seventeen people interviewed
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interesting experience was organisi
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Mitrovica Serb admitted that when h
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CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK "P
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4. Trade encourages the broader exp
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Miljacka River, separating the Serb
Page 25 and 26:
This part of inter-ethnic trade can
Page 27 and 28:
For the largest part of the past 60
Page 29 and 30:
“Because of such dissatisfactions
Page 31 and 32: sent all colonists back to Kosovo.
Page 33 and 34: Conditions have improved and the de
Page 35 and 36: Albanians reacted to these new poli
Page 37 and 38: same: First an Albanian village whi
Page 39 and 40: Data from the SOK is sometimes used
Page 41 and 42: the highest aid per capita ever giv
Page 43 and 44: Country % of Export % of Import Alb
Page 45 and 46: which were in turn disbanded in fav
Page 47 and 48: Another similarity between both com
Page 49 and 50: situation developed in favour of th
Page 51 and 52: its economic situation. Mitrovica u
Page 53 and 54: CHAPTER 5: RESULTS Placing inter-et
Page 55 and 56: Albanian” and by Serbs associated
Page 57 and 58: “But I will never accept the inde
Page 59 and 60: Another important reason why reconc
Page 61 and 62: “Everything that happens in Mitro
Page 63 and 64: August 2009 with violent protests a
Page 65 and 66: nationalists” because he believes
Page 67 and 68: (respondent #4). A Serb working in
Page 69 and 70: CHAPTER 6: RESULTS Views on the eff
Page 71 and 72: elieves inter-ethnic trade will imp
Page 73 and 74: Trader 3. Respondent #7, an Albania
Page 75 and 76: daughter of his sister who went to
Page 77 and 78: issues. On top of that you have to
Page 79 and 80: towards their colleagues of the oth
Page 81: that even if the legal or the grey
Page 85 and 86: REFERENCES Andreas, P. (2004). The
Page 87 and 88: Lagazio, M., & Russett, B. (2004).
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