The Name Game: The Prespa Agreement and the Macedonia naming dispute on the board

• Autor(a) principal: Möller, Bruno Abade
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/10495
• topic: Domestic Groups; Greece; Macedonia; Macedonian Name Dispute; Prespa Agreement; Two-Level Game Theory

The process of dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s was characterized by the independence of the republics of Croatia and Slovenia, followed afterwards by Macedonia. However, the independence of the Macedonian republic started a dispute with Greece because of the use of the name Macedonia, which is also the name of the Greek northern province. Thereby, due to a Greek pressure together with the international community, the Republic of Macedonia had to be officially called as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and the negotiations towards its accession into the EU and the NATO had been hindered by Greece until the Macedonian name dispute be resolved. In June 2018 the two countries signed an agreement near to the Prespa Lake in order to put a stop in almost thirty years of controversy. Nevertheless, each country has to negotiate with their respective domestic groups the agreement’s ratification, otherwise the dispute will remain without resolution. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to focus on the negotiations between FYROM and Greece in favor of resolving the Macedonian name dispute, and to analyze the importance of domestic groups to reach this objective. A qualitative methodology is employed for this research, making use of bibliographic research based on books, articles, theses, online newspapers, critical analysis and interviews. The use of the Two-level Game Theory as a theoretical framework is fundamental for a better understanding of the negotiations regarding the name dispute. Lastly, the research concludes that the Prespa Agreement ensures the Hellenic and Macedonian identity, culture and history, besides highlighting the challenges that the two parties still have to face.