The Western Balkans under Trump

About this episode

The episode explores the implications of the second Trump administration's foreign policy on the Western Balkans and the transatlantic alliance.

In 2025 we saw fractures emerging in the transatlantic alliance as the second Trump administration pushed a new foreign policy vision focused on a sovereigntist understanding of spheres of influence. Repeatedly Europe, and foremost the European Union, have been sidelined as partners and often depicted as adversaries. We explore the implications of this emerging transatlantic rift on the countries and region of the Western Balkans. The discussion features Eszter Kováts, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Vienna, and Biljana Kotevska, journalist at 24.hu, and is moderated by Damir Kapidžić, BiEPAG member. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Topics covered

• transatlantic alliance
• foreign policy
• Western Balkans
• European Union
• sovereigntist understanding
• geopolitics

Keywords

• Trump
• Western Balkans
• European Union
• foreign policy
• transatlantic rift
• sovereigntist

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: European Union

Places: Western Balkans

More episodes of Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG Talks

• Mining & Real Estate in the Balkans: Is Corrosive Capital Western now? · May 14, 2026 · 47 min
• A Change in Hungary: What does this mean for relations to the Balkans? · April 28, 2026 · 33 min
• The Student Protest Movement in Serbia: What does the Future hold? · February 27, 2026 · 30 min
• Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG Talks, episode 20 · December 31, 2025 · 27 min
• Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG Talks, episode 19 · December 19, 2025 · 33 min
• Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG Talks, episode 18 · December 11, 2025 · 38 min