PRESS RELEASES

We hereby express our dissatisfaction with the lack of reforms that the Government of Serbia has accepted to implement in the EU accession process, the deterioration of respect for democratic principles and the rule of law, the presence of hate speech and the increase in violence against individuals, journalists, media, those who do not share views of the current political establishment and civil society organizations, which are guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Serbia, who present critical views of the work and results of state institutions and bodies.

The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy and partner organizations, prepared a series of seminars for activists throughout Serbia. In the period from August to December, over 15 meetings and trainings were held in which about 150 activists from local communities participated.

How to communicate complex research effectively? How to present different parts of the research to different audiences? Why think about all this from the very beginning of the research process? These are just some of the issues that BCSP interns discussed with Stevan Vujasinović, a communications expert in the field of public policy, at the third online workshop held on December 8th and 9th.

The citizens of Serbia and Kosovo support the dialogue, but it is not clear to them what exactly Belgrade and Pristina are negotiating about. The dialogue has not improved mutual relations, nor do citizens feel personal benefit from it. At the interpersonal level, the ethnic distance between Serbs and Albanians is great and most would not accept the other as a family member or superior at work. This could change if politicians and the media close to them change their current narratives, it was pointed out during event co-organized by the Belgrade Centrr for Security Policy (BCSP), Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Kosovo Center for Security Studies (KCSS) on December 7th.

Citizens of Serbia simultaneously have mutually contradictory views on national and personal security, as well as on the relationship with institutions, according to a public opinion poll presented at a BCSP online event held on November 24.

The general finding of the new prEUgovor’s semi-annual Alarm Report is that almost nothing was done in the Chapters 23 and 24, from May to October 2020. The report was presented on November 17th via Zoom. The conference concluded that the report documents state capture in various areas - drawing public resources for the ruling parties' election campaign and through non-transparent procurement, politicization of law enforcement agencies, which leads to selective justice, and negligence towards the needs of particularly vulnerable groups.

How to present complex topics from the field of security so that they are clear and easily understood and how to bring them closer to the general public through posts on Wikipedia was the central question of the online workshop organized for interns by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy on November 10th.

BCSP is proud to announce the expansion of its research team with three outstanding researchers. Vuk Vuksanović, Luka Šterić and Srđan Hercigonja are new members of the BCSP team.

Through a series of online workshops held from 13th to 23rd October, BCSP interns learned more about security sector reform, cybersecurity, and public policy research.

Letter by Serbian civil society organizations.

The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) strongly condemns police brutality and demands an urgent investigation into police conduct towards protesters who gathered in central Belgrade last night. The citizens have a right to peacefully express dissatisfaction with the way the government is combating the COVID-19 pandemic and the government should stop furthering social polarisation, which threatens to develop into a permanent state of violence.

As NATO’s presence in the Balkan region continues to grow, experts generally agree that NATO’s pursuit of regional cooperation and mutually beneficial relationships for security has had some level of success, but also acknowledge that NATO membership has been a source of bureaucratic frustration for some members. In the discussion “NATO in the Balkans, the Balkans in NATO,” the balance of these benefits and challenges were reflected upon by experts who analyzed how this influence has impacted the region.