Research Interests

European Union (EU), EU Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Enlargement Policy, Peacebuilding and Statebuilding and Civil Society

Background & Qualification

Dr Dani Ilazi received his PhD from DCU in 2021. He also holds an MLitt in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He is a former deputy minister for European integration in the Kosovo government involved in the process of preparing the national program for implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), designing the European Reform Agenda and the process of fulfilling the visa liberalization conditions. In 2014, he briefly served as an adviser in the cabinet of the Prime Minister of Kosovo. Prior to becoming involved in politics, Dani was an active member of civil society in Kosovo, serving as executive director of the Kosovo Institute of Peace from 2012 until 2014 and of Levizja FOL from 2008 until 2011. In 2012, he coauthored the paper “A Peace Treaty for Sustainable Peace: a new beginning for Kosovo and Serbia”.  Dani currently serves as an external adviser on EU affairs to the Speaker of Kosovo Parliament

PhD Thesis

How does everyday practice of EU diplomacy of statebuilding works?

Research Overview

His doctoral thesis examined the EU’s diplomacy of statebuilding in Kosovo. It explores both conceptually and empirically the EU’s emerging multi-layered approach to governing external relations, where statebuilding in post-conflict and fragile states is seen as an exercise in building resilience and pre-empting threats to the EU as well as a field of practice of EU regional governmentality. The central aspect of the thesis is understanding the particularities and effectiveness of EU’s approach to statebuilding and its multi-layered diplomatic and institutional manifestation. While the UN statebuilding approach is very much tied with peacebuilding, EU’s model of statebuilding is much more complex. In the recent years, the EU has developed a distinct approach of statebuilding, which is different from the UN and other regional actors. This is not sufficiently studied. Therefore, this thesis aims to unearth how EU’s model of statebuilding is more prone to externalising its own internal normative commitment and own model of consolidation than use universal blueprints which is often assumed in statebuilding literature Post-conflict statebuilding has been a test case for EU to consolidate its own external actorness and foreign policy identity, as well as reconcile the difference among its member states.

Supervisors

Professor John Doyle and Dr Gëzim Visoka

Twitter: @Danlazi