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In 2008 political leaders in Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, thereby calling into being a new state, the status of which remains a matter of dispute today. With the creation of said state, a new citizenship was brought into being, potentially adding an additional layer of belonging or identification. In reality this citizenship has been received in a multitude of ways by those who living in Kosovo, with reactions ranging from enthusiastic acceptance to outright rejection. In addition, changed social, political and legal circumstances have given rise to reconfigured yet unstable cultural conditions in which identities are now being formed. My research investigates various narratives of identification being created in Kosovo today from the perspectives of both the public sphere and the private individual. Furthermore, it seeks to look at the levels of influence which these spheres might exert on one another. The hypothesis suggests that public actors, such as political parties, international organisations, the media or cultural institutions, present a variety of (competing) identity narratives to members of society. The aim, therefore, is to research the extent to which these public narratives are seen to permeate to the level of the individual, and become (re)organised or (re)structured into the personal narrative. The paper posits an applied research approach for the investigation of this issue. In particular, it will focus on how different social methods are applied to help one discover more about the processes of identity formation in a complex, dynamic and unsettled context such as present-day Kosovo.

Human behavior is striking for it is the same and yet different. Many common behaviors are displayed by humans around the world whatever their race or ethnic heritage. And yet there are also unique parochial behaviors among various peoples. That is behaviors that are bound to a particular culture or ethnic group in their locale or milieu. Of course the interaction of different cultures may lead to common cultural phenomena and behaviour across various human groups - hence for example, TV, blue jeans and hello are just about ubiquitous.Human behavior is largely rooted in one or both of the following:

Biological heritage
Cultural heritage

Universal behavior, that is shared by humans around the world therefore, is based in human biological inheritance passed on through the generations of all mankind. Alternatively, behavior that is different among the various groups of mankind, is developed in our learned behavior from our social and physical surroundings.It should be no surprise therefore, to see that the interaction of diverse parochial behaviors across cultural borders often lead to unintended misunderstanding - even conflict. This misunderstanding may appear as the received meaning of the various exotic behaviors' messages are found offensive, even if they were not meant to be so.In this paper, first of all human behavior that is universal will be looked at. Then a comparative-culture view of learned parochial behavior will be taken of various unique and culturally bound behaviors. However, the overall thrust of the paper is practical. From the insights gained of human behavior, some empathy-based practical communication techniques for effective intercultural communication are listed. With their application, intercultural offence may be minimised, and co-operation and understanding maximised.

In recent decades world supply of oil has been increasingly held in the Islamic countries around the Persian Gulf. The fact that the level of oil production is high in these countries and that they possess most of the world's oil reserves could be extremely significant. This 'petropower' could lead to strategic geopolitical developments when oil is used as economic and political weapons. It may be that the apocalyptic appeal of militant Islamism coming out of Iran can weld both Shia and Sunni people of the region to the cause of establishing a world Islamic 'caliphate'. This may appear in a new world of a tripartite mix of superpowers, one of which could be an Iranian-led oil rich Islamic bloc of Gulf states. Each superpower would vie for advantage, and particularly two of these superpowers would seek favor in maintaining supplies of oil imports increasingly from a potentially Iran dominated mix of oil producing Islamic countries. .