The Balkans have always been a bone of contention in Europe and have experienced many conflicts with and without the intervention of other European countries. The region has gradually gained notoriety and is generally considered by the Western world to be the outcast of Europe.

Tom Gallagher from Scotland does not share the common negative opinion of the Balkans. He has started collecting material and writing a book that follows the historical relationship between the region and Europe's great powers. He argues that most of the conflicts and tensions here have been provoked by outside influences.

A professor of Ethnic Peace and Conflict with the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, Gallagher said he was interested in the politics of ethnicity, particularly in cultures and regions that were moving from dictatorship to democracy; from closed systems to open ones. "I began by looking at ethnic conflicts in the place where I come from," said the Scottish professor. "I started to be interested in how to overcome ethnic problems in Western Europe, then I transferred my interest to this part of Europe."

According to Gallagher the social sciences can be used to promote methods and strategies for minimizing differences, not only on a national or regional level, but also on a minor level. He has spent time in Romania drawing up a report for the Department of International Development. It deals with the creation of a program for assisting Romania to emerge from its current economic crisis, which is marked by high levels of poverty, industrial decline, and rural stagnation. The report involved consultations with over 30 people on questions like how to create a public service-orientated bureaucracy and involve civil society in policy-making, especially at local and regional levels. Gallagher has also spent a lot of time in different parts of Yugoslavia but has visited Bulgaria only twice.

In the book that he's currently working on Gallagher examines the origins of Western prejudice towards the Balkans, traces the damaging effects of Western policies and reassesses the negative image of the region, its citizens, their leadership skills and their potential to overcome problems. "Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789-1989: From the Ottomans to Milosevic" will be available on August 31 from Routledge publishing house.

Gallagher said the idea for the book came to him in 1992 during a meeting of the Council of the European Union in Edinburgh, Scotland. "This was at the time of the troubles in Bosnia. There was also hostility in Great Britain to the idea of enlarging the EU because the EU had responded very cruelly towards the crisis in Yugoslavia. I think a lot of people thought `Why should we give sovereignty to this big European entity?'"

The author said he was shocked by the discourse of one of the speakers at the meeting, former British prime minister Edward Heath, who did a lot to bring Britain into the EU in the 1970s. "In his speech he said: `The terrible events in Yugoslavia do not undermine the European project because Yugoslavia is not part of Europe. The Balkans are really outside the European landmass,'" Gallagher recalled. "I thought that was a short-sighted view. So I decided to explore the relationship not just with Western Europe but with Russia and the U.S. as well. I came to the conclusion that even though the people of the Balkans were not angels, a lot of their problems come from outside."

The author said his book was an effort to create a balanced and broader image of the region, which is often misunderstood in the West. He decided that it was best to adopt a chronological format. The work draws on a lot of different historical sources, diplomatic papers, various foreign ministries, memoirs, books written by journalists and travellers, and by people of the region itself who "try to influence the way that they are seen in the West."

According to the author the quality of western policy during the Cold war was "just as mediocre and ignorant as the earlier phases of the engagement". He argues that in the 1980s, when the Soviets were not really concerned with the Balkans but were much more interested in the East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland, the West had the opportunity to promote better standards and governance. "But they thought it was a waste of time to do anything because of their stereotypical thinking."

Gallagher said that after examining the "rather rocky and unsatisfactory" relationship between the West and the Balkans over a long historical period, the question is now "whether we will break out of this hard affair based on the West not really understanding the Balkans very well and many people on the Balkans not understanding the West really well." The question remains still unanswered but "Outcast Europe" will soon be stepping forward.