Authors

Discussion

The collapse of an empire is always followed by humanitarian crises: clashes between successor states lead to wars, massive human rights violations and migration waves. Humanitarian crises are regional or global threats to the international order. Under such circumstances, the situation of new nation-states are particularly difficult, when trying to emerge from the role of the so-called weak state with the help of the international community. This happened in the decades of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and this happened with the break-up of the Soviet Union.

International community responded to this dual challenge by setting up a specific type of commission, the International Control Commission (ICC), during the 19-20th century. These commissions were set up in areas where the interests of the great powers were in direct conflict. Such areas included Albania between 1912 and 1914, and the present Ukraine. The commissions were given a complex set of tasks for a limited period of time: they were involved in the construction and control of the new state.

This lecture aims to present a project that will explore the complex history of such a commission (the ICC in Albania), to articulate its unexploited historical experience and to make the results directly utilizable to international diplomacy by an active diplomat participating in the project as a co-researcher. Project participants would make recommendations for a possible future ICC to be established after the Ukrainian-Russian war. The adaptability of the Albanian experience in Ukraine is based on the fact that this type of international commission is strongly Eastern European-centric and that the two nation- and nation-state-building efforts have strong Austro-Hungarian roots.