This is a study about an emerging new small state in Europe, the Republic of Kosovo, and its efforts to pursue its international economic interests through building capacity in commercial diplomacy. This process will be explained by deploying an international political economy framework that emphasizes the interplay of both economic and political factors operating to constrain and enable Kosovo’s approach such diplomacy at three levels: the local (i.e. Balkans) level; the regional (EU) level; and the global (WTO) level. As a country undergoing its state-building process, Kosovo still faces substantive internal challenges as well as external challenges to reinforce its international subjectivity, however, it is making serious efforts in pursuing its recognition in international settings.
The main purpose of the research is to investigate on how Kosovo as a small state under formation is building its internal state capacities to design and implement economic diplomacy policies externally as an important foreign policy instrument. Inherent to this is an appreciation of the interplay between domestic (i.e. state-building) and outward-facing (i.e. foreign policy) elements of commercial diplomacy. The research agenda concentrates on gaining new knowledge by utilizing relevant and representative literature: this is grounded in a review of three broad debates pertaining to small states, economic diplomacy, and the Western Balkans (including the region’s experience of Europeanization). The empirical agenda is predicated on collecting evidence through a qualitative study approach in investigating policy-making formulation and implementation taking into account domestic, regional and international determinants that enable and constrain exercise of Kosovo’s economic diplomacy. The research is novel and will ultimately contribute to both small state studies and questions economic diplomacy, taking the lack of empirical evidence and academic literature on policies and practices of implementing economic diplomacy in the Western Balkans, specifically Kosovo. 3
