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BCSP Executive Director co-authors report on resilience in the Western Balkans
Report examines how the Western Balkans has emerged once again as a potentially volatile geopolitical arena, and analyses the drivers underpinning both fragility and resilience in the countries of the region from a variety of perspectives.
The negative developments in the Western Balkans have exposed the difficulties of enlargement as a policy in the region, and once again raised doubts about the EU’s capacity to act decisively at a time when mounting challenges to the security have raised expectations and led to calls for the Union to play a stronger global role.
Worrying numbers of foreign fighters from the region joining Daesh or Al-Nusra in Syria and Iraq or either side (pro-Russian rebels or forces loyal to the government in Kiev) in the conflict in Ukraine, as well as other destabilizing factors attest to the extent to which the Western Balkans are embedded in the Euro-Atlantic security space, but also highlight the region’s vulnerability to external drivers of instability and insecurity.
Report prepared by EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) analyses the drivers of fragility and resilience in the context of the internal and external challenges facing the region. It puts forward a series of recommendations that the EU and local actors may consider with a view to building up more resilient states and societies in the Western Balkans. Report is divided in two sections: the first one is devoted to the external drivers of fragility and resilience, while the second explores the internal ones.
Executive Director of Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) Predrag Petrovic and Executive Director of Kosovar Centre for Security Studies Florian Qehaja explore in their co-authored chapter the emerging issue of Islamic radicalization and violent extremism, exacerbated by an alienated and radicalized youth, returnees from Syria and/or resident foreign fighters.
While the aim of this report is to identify and optimize the drivers of resilience in the short term, it is essential that other actions and investments are undertaken in the long term in order to counter the further spread of Islamic extremism.
Report was prepared by EUISS with the support and cooperation of the European Fund for the Balkans.
Full report can be downloaded from EUISS website. The report is also available in BCSP’s library.
Tags: ..., analyses, authors, balkans, countries, director, drivers, emerged, examines, fragility, geopolitical, perspectives, potentially, region, report, resilience, underpinning, variety, volatile, western
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