By exposing the unintended consequences of the internationally engineered management of diversity that both weakened the state and hampered integration of minorities in post-conflict Kosovo, Calu makes a crucial and indispensable argument for examining the fatal gap between state-building templates and state-building practices.

Professor Anna Di Lellio, New York University, USA

Marius Calu's empirically rich and theoretically robust analysis is a fascinating, and original contribution. By highlighting how the ambitious aspirations of liberal state-building floundered when implemented in Kosovo, Calu demonstrates that externally contrived policies designed to facilitate plurality and multi-ethnic harmony, had a series of unintended negative consequences. The book's findings have great relevance beyond Kosovo and should be read by all those interested in managing divergent identities within the modern state.

Dr Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster, UK

This valuable work carefully analyses the gap between the rhetoric and practice of building a multi-ethnic Kosovo. Importantly, it goes beyond the Serbian community and considers other often overlooked groups, such as Roma, Ashkali and Bosniaks. This makes it a particularly welcome contribution to our understanding of contemporary Kosovo.

Professor James Ker-Lindsay, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK