Symbolic right-sizing and Balkan nationalisms: the Macedonia name dispute and the Prespa Agreement

Abstract

This article examines identity politics on the Macedonian name dispute and draws parallels with identity conflicts in other divided societies to examine how peacemakers and hardliners contest the prospect of negotiated peace settlements. The first part of the article examines competing narratives of the dispute and how the unexpected challenge of ‘symbolic right-sizing’ of national identity on both parts following the dissolution of Yugoslavia provoked major public and political outrage. It compares Greek and North Macedonian understandings of national boundaries, unity and ethnic group entitlement over symbols of national unity and past glory. The second part investigates conflict resolution and the two UN mediated agreements on the Macedonian name dispute: the Interim Agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrook and Matthew Nimitz in September 1995; and the comprehensive Prespa Agreement mediated by the latter in June 2018 concluded in early 2019. In the final part of the article, the wider significance of the case for the region, symbolic ‘right-sizing’, and theories of identity framing and conflict resolution are discussed.