Western Balkans

The Western Balkans refers to the group of countries that constituted the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, plus Albania.

Former Yugoslavia
The territory of Yugoslavia, once a major constituent of the Balkans, split into:

Understand
People in former Yugoslav countries (in particular) often deride the notion of Western Balkans as an artificial or anachronistic grouping of countries and as a euphemism for the Europe's "problem region" in the context of Yugoslavia's breakup and war. As this term has gained a degree of acceptance among the broader public in the past couple of decades, users are inreasingly unaware that it is a political neologism with difficult overtones. Saying 'Western Balkans' is probably not suitable for general conversations (i.e. outside of political speech and political discussions) once you're actually in the Western Balkans; it's more natural to refer to former Yugoslav countries as such, or simply to the Balkans.