Comparative Southeast European Studies 72, no. 4, 2025, is available in open access: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/soeu/72/4/html

Ensar Muharemović (Luxembourg) demonstrates how, during the year 1990, the process of democratization in Bosnia-Herzegovina was intentionally decelerated by the ruling Communist Party due to the ideological conservatism of its leadership, which directly contributed to the party’s ultimate loss of power to ethnically defined parties.

Dmytro V. Hryn et al. (all Kharkiv) impressively illustrate how flexible remote and hybrid work models effectively have contributed to Ukraine's resilience in the face of Russia's aggression, because they have helped Ukrainians to keep their country's economy active. The authors advocate for a more solid legal regulation of "non-traditional" forms of labour organisation.

Equally addressing tools conducive to resilience and effectivity, Dmytro Khutkyy (Tartu) and Olga Matveieva (Bochum) examine the interplay between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital democracy, and open government in Ukraine in 2018 and 2020, showing how the combination of real-life, online, and hybrid consultation formats enabled elements of participatory, direct, and consensus democracy in post-revolutionary and pre-full-scale invasion Ukraine.

Vjosa Hamiti (Prishtina) and Lumnije Jusufi (Berlin) explore, through linguistic analysis, the sociocultural influence of German bread culture in post-1999 Kosovo, which, driven by migration and economic changes, has effectively transformed Kosovar “bread habits”.

In the open section, Mirko Savković (Munich) provides a Book Review Essay on Kosta Nikolić’s voluminous study Krajina 1991–1995, which delves into the ideologically charged story of the failed separatist proto-state of the Republic of Serbian Krajina that existed on the territory of Croatia in the first half of the 1990s. The book’s topic is of relevance and provides salient lessons for contemporary separatist and territorial conflicts globally.

Finally, the issue features five reviews of interesting new books.