MA Studies in International Security officially opened

At Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Sciences, on November 21, 2007, in the presence of Ambassador of Kingdom of Norway Haakon Blankenborg, Assistant Minister of Defence for Defence Policy Dušan Spasojević, representative of the OSCE Mission in Serbia Vladimir Bilandžić, representatives of state institutions, students and journalists, MA Studies in International Security were officially opened. Jelena Đorđević, in charge of the MA and PhD studies at the Faculty, ambassador Blankenborg and special advisor in OSCE Mission in Serbia Vladimir Bilandžić addressed the audience.

When explaining the reasons for the support provided to the MA Studies project, ambassador Blankenborg stated that „ (we) are doing it for a reason of common interest, for the reason of European cooperation“, and also, to „develop the best available human resources who can take care of the cooperation. Not to develop a uniform standard of opinion, but critical human resources who can bring us forward“.

On behalf of the OSCE, Bilandžić said that this is the second year in a row that OSCE provides support to launching MA Studies in International Security. Only last year, OSCE stipend 16, and for this year, funds enough to stipend 10 students have been allocated. As he believes, “Serbia, as any other country going through the period of transition, needs a security sector which employs highly educated experts, who share a view of events based on European values.” He sees it as “natural that the OSCE is present in support for these efforts, thus contributing to a development of a theoretical and practical approach to security cooperation”.