Myra Waterbury

This project examines the political mobilization and integration strategies of ethnic minority political parties and organizations in Central and Eastern Europe from a transborder and transnational perspective. In this region, the strategic environment in which these parties operate, the resources available to them, and their ability to make claims and represent collective interests do not end at the borders of the state in which they live. External kin-states and the political institutions of the European Union both play potentially large roles in how ethnic minority political parties and actors determine their strategies, audience, and goals. There is currently little work showing how kin-state and EU actors and institutions together impact minority political strategies and mobilization. To address this gap, this project will investigate how these strategies are triangulated between domestic politics in the state of residence, connections to kin-state elites and institutions, and the European Union as an emerging sphere of political opportunity and claims-making.