Ethnic identity (geo)politics as a zero-sum game. Towards an assessment of the long-term effects of the Ohrid framework agreement

Since 2001 the inter-ethnic relations between the two largest ethno-national communities in the Republic of Macedonia have been regulated by the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA). Describing it as an attempt at Complex Power Sharing, the article explores the synthesis (in theory and in practice) between the Agreement’s consociational and integrationist tenets. Situating the genesis and implementation of the OFA at the intersection of internal and international relations and processes, it considers the influence of two strongly interrelated processes: the country’s neoliberal transformation and its accession path to the EU and NATO. Specific internal and international developments in the post-2001 period is analysed in order to illustrate the entrenchment of consociationalism at the expense of integrationism. As a result of these mutually reinforcing structures and processes, it is argued, inter-ethnic relations in the country have become a zero-sum game, which has eroded the scope for sustainable conflict resolution and inter-ethnic stability.