„Security Sector Reform and Western Balkans”: CCMR researchers in European Policy Centre

(Excerpt from the official invitation)

“The Western Balkans region keeps progressing albeit slowly on its path of internal reform. Many of the countries are dealing more or less successfully with the consequences of the 1990s wars, such as reconstruction, return of the refugees and internally displaced persons. Reform of the security sector – that is, not just the defence establishment but also police, intelligence, border control services – is, however, an integral part of this process. Without a thorough reform of the mechanisms that played a crucial role in the wars, further democratisation of the region will be difficult to achieve. Even the most developed countries of the region face important challenges when it comes to the reform of their security sector that still remains crucial to a full establishment of the rule of law and to the fight against organised crime and corruption.”

This Forum meeting addresses these challenges in Serbia and the rest of the Western Balkans. It takes as a starting-point the work of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations (Belgrade-based think-tank) on a methodology for measuring progress in security sector reform (SSR), which will be presented at the meeting. The Forum will be chaired by Alyson Bailes, Professor, University of Iceland and chair of the EPC Human Security and Global Governance Forum.

See attached programme for details of the speakers.