1 Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies vol 4, no 1. (Winter 2004), pp. 77-96 Contested Borders, Contested Identity: The Case of Regionalism in South East Europe Dimitar Bechev St Antony’s College University of Oxford dimitar.bechev@sant.ox.ac.uk Abstract Regionalism has become one of the prevailing trends in world politics nowadays. Regions are seen as proceeding from socio-economic linkages, but also from shared notions of belonging. There are two approaches to regional identity. The first one focuses on common culture, language, historical experience. The second approach views regions as a sort of ‘imagined community’ or political constructs. The paper takes up the latter view and argues that the refdefinition of regional identity exemplified by the substitution of the term ‘Balkans’ with ‘South East Europe’ played a crucial role in the cooperation initiatives since the mid-1990s. It explores schemes such as the South Eastern European Cooperation Process (SEECP) and the Stability Pact for South East Europe to highlighting two important conclusions. First, the South East European project has been an attempt to overcome the area’s marginalisation vis-à-vis the West. Second, the emergence of a coherent regional identity was inhibited by the impossibility to draw clear-cut borders in order to demarcate South East Europe. Keywords: South East Europe, regionalism, identity, history, interstate politics