What prevents effective security cooperation between the Western Balkan countries?

Scholars and practitioners see the problem of instability and growing security challenges in the Western Balkans as the result of too many actors with different (regional) interests and a lack of local state ownership of the regional security regime. In their paper on the stagnation of regional security in the Western Balkans, Prof. Ana Bojinović Fenko and Marko Kovačević explore the functioning of 40 security institutions in the region, based on the conceptual link between levels of regionality and the culture of anarchy.

The results show that the countries of the Western Balkans are currently operating in different forms of anarchy - moving between Hobbesian and Lockean cultures of regional anarchy. At the same time, they are under pressure to strengthen regional integration towards a Kantian culture. The countries in the region are showing interest in cooperating in practical areas where they are interdependent - such as energy, environmental protection, disaster prevention and crisis management. This type of cooperation strengthens the Lockean culture of anarchy. However, these countries are reluctant to cooperate in more sensitive security areas where they should leave part of their internal competences and control to common structures. This hinders the transition to a Kantian culture, which requires more mutual trust and the creation of a common identity.

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Photo: Canva