Der Balkan und der Nahe Osten – eine gemeinsame Geschichte
The Balkans and the Near East – a Shared History

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of the paper is to investigate the future of area studies, such as Balkan studies, which have come under the pressure due to globalization and the dissolution of cultural areas that previously seemed to be stable. Processes of migration and transnationalism have furthered this loss of stability. In the USA, former area studies have been transformed into context sensitive global social sciences, which are intended to be global in perspective and reasoning but local in empirical evidence. The paper argues for an adaptation of Balkan studies to this trend through the development of a new identity as an integral part of Eurasian studies. The first step towards such an extended perspective might be the convergence of Balkan and Near East studies, which had been developed as separate disciplines in the past. Despite this academic separation, the Balkans and the Near East have shared a long history and there is no objective reason for keeping the two regions apart. In its second part the paper analyses three examples, which demonstrate that the imprint of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkans and the Near East weighs heavily on both regions to the present day. This imprint is most evident in the tributary form of government, the problem of forming a civil society, and the specific relation between state and economy.

• Details
• Contents