The Fourth Belgrade Security Forum Announcement

Academic Event

Following the best practices from the last three years, the academic part of the Forum will be organized for emerging young researchers and leaders on 30 September, under the title: Usable Past, Collective Memories and International Security.

The year 2014 marks 100th anniversary of the First World War, quarter of a century since the end of the Cold War and a decade since the Big Bang enlargement of the EU. As such, it represents a good opportunity to reflect on the role of collective memories in world politics. The academic event aims to discuss how collective memory is implicated in contemporary security practices and discourses. Instead of looking at how past events have influenced the present, we are interested in how is the past used and misused to inform security representations and shape security policies. Specific attention will be paid to the use of historic analogies and lessons learns in security policy making as well as the culture of remembrance by and within security institutions – military, intelligence and police. We welcome contributions that work at the intersection of security studies and sociology of memory in order to shed light on the importance of collective memories for theory and practice of international security.

Main Event

The conference will host panel debates on various topics related to global and European security challenges, particularly within the framework of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.

Among other issues, renowned participants will examine to what extent the IWW anniversary can be considered as a closure/new beginning of the historical and integrative discourse in the Western Balkans and Europe, and discuss about dilemmas of the enlargement in the line with the 10th anniversary of the Big-Bang Enlargement. Particular attention will be given to the recommendations issued by the International Commission on the Balkans in 2005 and the broader (dis)integrative context and policies in the Western Balkans and Mediterranean area.  As was our aim for the last three years, most of these panels will try to examine the transformation of the Balkans from a security problem to a security partner and bring forward the opportunities and lessons learned from this process.