The Adriatic — Biweekly Dispatch

20 June 2026

Published by the Institute for Strategic Solutions (ISR)

Read this online here. Visit The Adriatic at theadriatic.si

King's Birthday Edition - with thanks to the British Embassy for a memorable evening

Creating memories on an industrial scale

Jure Stojan

As any head of state can attest, not all dates of birth are equally convenient. June is pretty much the ideal month for holding birthday celebrations. Not yet as hot as July or August, it is decidedly warmer and sunnier than May, with less a chance of rain showers than in September. The weather in June is quite simply inviting. It is a pleasure to meet on a well-manicured lawn, in the pleasant shadow of a historic palace, and toast to His Majesty's most excellent health.

The Queen's Birthday Parade, Hamilton, Bermuda, 2000. Seán Pòl Ó Creachmhaoil

In matters of state, the actual date of birth is far less important than the convenience of June. The current reigning sovereign of the United Kingdom, HM King Charles III, first saw the light of day on 14 November 1948. It was a month not really known for its light or pleasant weather. Thus, it was natural to observe the tradition of the House of Windsor, and move the official celebrations to a month with more reliable sunshine.

The reason is simple. In reality, royal birthdays are only tangentially connected with the life of a monarch. It is not a private occasion but a decidedly public one. The King is respected but not worshipped. The King's Birthday is a celebration of a constitutional monarchy, an occasion for all his subjects, across all his nations, to have a good time.

Contemporary kingship shares only a few traits with its medieval or even ancient forms. Yes, there is pomp and circumstance and in the United Kingdom, a lavish coronation in the same hallowed halls of Westminster Abbey. But even the most fearless forbears would shudder if faced with the ordeals of contemporary monarchs and their immediate families. Each and every year, the tallies are indeed awe-inspiring. The Royal Family carries out about 2,000 official engagements annually and entertains about 70,000 people at lunches, dinners, receptions, and garden parties. They receive, and answer, about 100,000 letters.

For each of these guests and correspondents, even the fleetest contact with a member of the Royal Family is a matter of lifelong memories. For the King and the Royal princes and princesses, it is a full-time job, scripted to detailed agendas, and undertaken with impeccable manners, etiquette, and a friendly smile - even when they do not feel like smiling. Their role is to create positive impressions on an almost industrial scale. All their lives, they have trained in how to make even the shortest interactions pleasurable.

So, having an official birthday in June is only a continuation of the same logic. The predictably nicer weather makes it easier to create beautiful memories.

Jure Stojan is a partner and director of R&D at ISR. His research focuses on macroeconomic policy, monetary policy, regulatory policy and entrepreneurship.

The art of the Black Swan

On 8 July, at the EU House in Ljubljana, we convene the latest in our inFocus series to consider how a small, export-dependent economy navigates a fragmenting trading order. The session gathers foreign-policy specialists, business leaders and policymakers around the question of "black swan" events - improbable but seismic, the September 11th sort - and what they mean for Slovenian firms seeking faster-growing markets, financing for expansion abroad and supply chains resilient enough to withstand the next surprise.

Save the date

Tete-a-Tete

The romantic rationalist

Nigel Baker is Britain's Chargé d'Affaires in Slovenia, capping a 37-year diplomatic career that has taken him to La Paz, the Vatican and Bratislava as ambassador. His postings trace the arc of post-Cold War Europe: he began in Czechoslovakia as the Iron Curtain fell, worked on NATO enlargement, and has spent recent years on the Russian challenge to liberal order. He has served under ten prime ministers and eighteen foreign secretaries. History, he says, is the root of understanding.

Where do we find you this weekend?

I have been using my weekends to discover Slovenia, from Piran in the west to Murska Sobota in the east, the Karawanken mountain range to the Kolpa river. Slovenia is well known to British tourists, thanks to some excellent marketing and the regular flights between London, Edinburgh and Manchester and Ljubljana. But many do not get beyond Ljubljana and Lake Bled in the summer, and the ski resorts in the winter. I have learned about a "secret" Slovenia, secret at least for tourists, but well worth visiting and deserving of better marketing. Places for history lovers like me: the magnificent Vojensky Park at Pivka or the Kobarid WWI museum. Or corners of Slovenia where time has stood still, like the villages of the Bela Krajina and Poljanska Gora. Not forgetting the many pleasures of Ljubljana. My highlight in the capital? The Plečnik House, where a visitor can get under the skin of Slovenia's, and one of Europe's, finest modern architect.

What is always on the table at the weekend?

I love to walk, and I am not a great cook (and my wife, who is, is in the UK!). So it is often a wayside restaurant, bar or chalet, where I can get Slovenian cheese or prosciutto washed down with a good local wine or beer. Food tastes better when you have made an effort! The Slovene speciality that caught my imagination and taste buds is the delicious Prekmurska gibanica with all my favourite ingredients. But it has to be eaten in the Prekmurje region for the very best taste.

You took two years out to write about the eighteenth century. What still pulls you back to it?

I read history at university, for pure pleasure. Of course, one can learn lessons from history - human beings haven't changed so much in two thousand years - but it is the narrative and stories that really attract me. The eighteenth century was the last period before the tedious road of specialisation, when we could still be "all things to all men", when scientists were also artists, and philosophers were also politicians - think of Franklin, or Burke, or Diderot. It was also the era when modern diplomacy, its rules and procedures, was born, culminating in the 1814–15 Congress of Vienna. While I am a romantic at heart, the so-called "Age of Reason" was a period of extraordinary intellectual and philosophical progress, and as we counter the modern tides of populism and barbarism, we could do worse than anchor ourselves in that age of rational thought.

Five years as ambassador to the Holy See. Did it change how you keep a Sunday?

In a word, yes. I am a practising Anglican - one Archbishop of Canterbury reminded me that the modern Church of England is still catholic, if no longer Roman - but I must confess that I never went to church as often as during my five years at the Holy See. I think I attended mass more frequently then most Catholics in that period. But, joking aside, I came to appreciate the moments of contemplation across our busy, over-hectic lives that a church service can provide. I was spoilt there, and must confess I do prefer a service in a historic church, with fine artwork, and good music or choral singing. After all, and this was certainly the case at the Vatican, the very best church services are, in essence, theatrical performances. And there is something about a long-term, two-thousand-year outlook on key policies that represents a good antidote to our popular democracies that struggle to look beyond next week.

You worked with the Prince of Wales. What has stayed with you?

As Prince of Wales, and now King, His Majesty has an ability to focus on making a difference on behalf of people. That doesn't seem radical, but I have lived much of my professional life in government, which can become obsessed with process. For The King, it is the unsung heroes of this world that count: the farmer who supports his local community; the nurse who devotes her life to caring for the terminally ill; the war veteran who saw his comrades killed in the fight for freedom and the country. And, underneath it all, the values that underpin our democratic society: fairness, hard work, humility, self-sacrifice, the recognition of difference, courage, healthy patriotism. It was a privilege to work closely at his side. And these are the lessons that I have tried to apply in my life since.

Also on the site:

The Western Balkans diaspora is coming home to invest

How Balkan companies are redefining the CEE market

Governmental web portals

Statehood by design

Andraž Tavčar

None of us expect much when combing over government websites apart from being able to reliably offer us a cursory as well as an in-depth entry way into getting to know a particular country we're interested in. Yet, through research and repeated visits to these portals, one begins to notice a shifting pattern, in that many of them have been redesigned with a modern, polished aesthetic that seeks to convey something far beyond mere functionality.

NASA website homepage, 2015. NASA

Albania's e-Albania portal greets visitors with a swimming-pool-blue button and the now infamous new AI minister, named Diella, illustrated in traditional Albanian dress. It reads less like a government website and more like a business website, which is precisely the point.

Government web design has become a form of soft power projection, wherein states project not beyond their capacities, but what kind of state they aspire to become. Read the full survey of the region's governmental portals here.

In Brief

Weeks of protests against a $4 billion luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have evolved into the most significant political crisis of Prime Minister Edi Rama's fourth term. The leaderless, non-partisan movement - dubbed the "Flamingo Revolution" after the protected lagoon threatened by the development - has drawn students, professionals and environmental activists onto the streets in numbers not seen in years. Rama blames Iranian hackers and "foreigners who hate Trump", but the project poses a genuine foreign policy conundrum, risking alienation from Brussels at a time when EU and US interests in the Western Balkans are increasingly at odds.

Roberto Vannacci, a former Italian army general, last week launched National Future after leaving Matteo Salvini's League over what he viewed as the governing coalition's soft stance on immigration and military aid to Ukraine. His priorities include reducing the foreign-born population to 4 per cent, leaving the euro area and the Green Deal, and ending the ban on nuclear energy. Polling at 4-5 per cent ahead of the 2027 election, National Future could leave Giorgia Meloni's coalition short of a majority - or force her further right.

MEPs in Strasbourg backed the membership prospects of Montenegro and Albania, with rapporteurs calling the goal of concluding negotiations by end-2026 and end-2027 respectively "ambitious but achievable". North Macedonia, the report said, should be next. Bosnia and Herzegovina drew harsher scrutiny: "the judicial system is very weak, reforms are slow, media freedom is on a very low level", rapporteur Ondřej Kolář told the chamber. The report on Serbia is expected in July.

Gripes, requests or inquiries are always welcome. Drop us a line at [email protected].

Published by Institute for Strategic Solutions (ISR)

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