Conceptualising Normalisation in International Organisations’ Responses to Secessionist Conflicts: Insights from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

The unilateral secession and consolidation of de facto statehood often accompanying secessionist conflicts pose major challenges for international organisations (IOs) involved in conflict management and resolution processes. Unable to find long-term solutions to seemingly intractable conflicts, IOs are forced to search for alternative ways to respond to the formation of de facto states. Seeking to further our understanding of IOs’ responses to unilateral secession, this chapter develops the concept of normalisation, conceived of as a policy aim of IOs and as a process of moving towards peaceful co-existence between secessionist entities and the states from which they are trying to break away. Drawing upon selected examples of secessionist conflicts in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, we demonstrate how IOs foster political, economic, and societal normalisation, and offer several hypotheses about the conditions conducive to IOs’ support for processes of normalisation. Identifying possible pathways for future research based on this conceptual exercise, this chapter contributes to theory-oriented studies of Eastern Europe as a conflict region, as well as to the broader literature on international actors’ involvement in secessionist conflicts.