ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book develops an analytical framework based on the understanding of citizenship as a state identity in pluriethnic and unconsolidated states. It analyses the interaction between elites and society in reconstructing the post-Yugoslav citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. The book explains the Citizenship en route to the European Union looks at how the external pressures shaped the states and citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It highlights the societal factors that have contributed to the fragmentation of these countries' citizenship regimes. The term 'citizenship', apart from denoting the tenure of legally conferred rights and duties, coincides with the term nationality in that the latter designates the relationship between individual and state in international law. The triangle between the citizenship, state, and nation gained paramount importance with the fall of socialism in Eastern Europe, which brought along the disintegration of multinational federations.
