The Best of BCSP in 2020

In 2020, we marked 23 years of successful work in a very challenging moment for Serbia and the world around us and that is exactly why we wanted to highlight the values we stand for and identify the challenges that await us. BCSP can guarantee that we will always defend the values we have been defending in the last 23 years – human rights and freedoms, democracy and accountability.

Community of associates, partners and friends with whom we share values and who supported us in improving the security of citizens in accordance with democratic principles and respect for human rights for over 23 years is of great importance for us. Thank you! Please, continue to follow our work in 2021, to participate in our activities and to be the lighthouse to security policy in Serbia ​​with us!

Take a look at the biggest BCSP successes in the year behind us.

COVID – 19

• BCSP has successfully adapted to working conditions in a pandemic and has actively monitored the (ab)use of security sector institutions during the state of emergency, alerted the public to human rights violations and analyzed how COVID-19 pandemic affects Serbia’s foreign policy.
• A public opinion poll conducted during September and October 2020 demonstrated that citizens have contradictory views on measures taken to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and regarding the reaction of the competent institutions to the health crisis.

 Security

• The BCSP team drew attention of the public to the significant problem of the outflow of personnel from the defense system. We discussed this issue with about 50 representatives of defence unions, the international community, civil society and the media at the event organized in March, and the cartoon depicting this problem reached over 25,000 users on social networks and provoked numerous comments of support from the employees in the defense system.
• In the public opinion poll conducted during autumn 2020 we asked the citizens what they think about Serbia’s security policy and the results were presented to the public during online event.
• The Belgrade Security Forum marked its tenth anniversary with a series of dynamic online panel discussions on the most important current topics in security and foreign policy, with the important message “No peace, no trust!”. During the event, BCSP representatives discussed state capture, regional military cooperation and organized crime, which will be the topic of BCSP research in the following period.

State capture

• BCSP was the first to publish a systematic report on the processes of state capture through the example of one sector – the security sector in Serbia. We have demonstrated how institutions stop working in the service of citizens and begin to serve narrow individual or political interests and that was presented to the public during the online event, where Reinhard Pribe, author of reports on rule of law issues in Northern Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina spoke about our research.
• A public opinion poll conducted during September and October 2020 demonstrated that citizens recognize the elements of the state capture in Serbia but they think that institutions should deal independently with all problems related to the abuse of power mechanisms and corruption.

Foreign policy and Kosovo issue

• In 2020, the BCSP launched a new strategic program pillar within which we will deal with research in the area of Serbia’s foreign policy, geostrategic issues and regional relations. The result of this initiative was the analysis of foreign policy during the state of emergency, a brief analysis of the relations between Serbia and Hungary and an analysis of the results of public opinion poll on Serbia’s foreign policy.
• During 2020, the Kosovo issue was in the focus of the BCSP work. During the event organized in February, we presented the views of citizens on the importance of the agreements reached in Brussels, together with partners from the Kosovo Center for Security Studies we launched the Western Balkans Security Barometer. Also, within the Belgrade Security Forum, we published a report in which experts from Belgrade, Pristina, Brussels and Washington give their views on the Kosovo issue.
• BCSP established cooperation with the School of International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, and during the joint online event, we presented the results of a public opinion poll on the Kosovo issue.
• Within the prEUgovor coalition, BCSP continued to advocate substantial reforms in Chapters 23 and 24 in Serbia and to alert the domestic public and EU institutions about the abuses of the accession process in order to capture the state.

Growth and education

• The previous year was marked by many innovations in BCSP: a new strategic plan of the organization was adopted, a new website with a completely new visual identity and logo was launched, and the research team was expanded.
• BCSP’s long-term successful cooperation with the Faculty of Political Sciences was made official by signing of the cooperation agreement. BCSP will continue to provide students with an internship in a think-tank environment through its internship program and offer knowledge on security sector reform by participating in the International Security study program at the Faculty of Political Sciences.
• During 2020, BCSP continued to provide support to activists throughout Serbia. We held over 15 meetings and trainings for about 150 activists from local communities.

BCSP in numbers

• BCSP research findings and analysis appeared in the media over 1,200 times during 2020.
• BCSP team organized about 40 public events and trainings – independently and together with partners.
• During 2020, BCSP published over 30 publications and short analyzes.