Simulated Power and the Power of Simulations: The European Union in the Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia

This article offers a poststructuralist analysis of the role of the European Union (EU) in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia by employing the works of Jean Baudrillard. Drawing from the content and discourse analysis of texts – policy documents, speeches, statements – as well as 14 interviews conducted in Kosovo, Serbia and the EU, the article is framed to explore how the EU assert power in this dialogue. It suggests that the EU simulates its power, firstly by denying its own role in the process and secondly by exaggerating the European future for Kosovo and Serbia. Observing how the dialogue produced ambiguities in which meanings are relativized, the article suggests that Baudrillard's framework can be useful in understanding and problematizing certain aspects of the nature of EU's power and its effects.