Explaining Change in the Albanian State Identity

The establishment of the Berlin Process by the EU initiated a distinct regionalisation policy for the Western Balkans. Most scholars have emphasised the contradictions between domestic sources of legitimation and EU norm transfer underpinning state building processes. However, the interaction between modernising local elites, seeking to become embedded in transnational integration regimes, and policy discourses of regionalisation has been scantly addressed. The case study of Albania represents the most likely case to explicate the interaction between a modernising local political elite, embedded in post-liberal governance practices and networks, and a regionalisation process. This article poses the question of how the Albanian political elite comes to transform its state identity. The article relies on a qualitative methodology combining the case study research method with critical discourse analysis and process tracing. The contribution which the article makes to earlier research focuses on the local agency of political elites using foreign policy discourse in implementing external norms.