Abstract This article explores the national role conceptions (NRCs) and underlying sources that Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia adopt in their foreign policy orientations. Applying Holsti’s (1970) role theory, we conducted a comparative and discourse-sensitive content analysis of leaders’ addresses at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) between 2008 and 2024. The analysis contends that leaders’ foreign policy discourse is shaped by a coexisting role tension between identity-missioned and conflict-oriented Balkanisation versus norm-missioned and cooperation-oriented Europeanisation. First, identity-missioned active independent and liberation supporter roles, with pertinent sources of international principles, perception of threat, humanitarian concern, and historical legacies, discursively reproduce Balkanisation across inter-state and regional levels. Second, norm-missioned role of faithful ally, grounded in sense of belonging, geographical location, humanitarian concerns, and economic needs, functions as a catalyst for cooperation-oriented discursive Europeanisation at the international level. Third, Serbia, redefining the role tension between Europeanisation and Balkanisation, emerges as a sui generis case. Belgrade’s distinct roles, excluding faithful ally and including anti-imperialist agent, and ever-changing interpretations of sources set it apart from other states.
Canveren et al. (2026) studied this question.