Regional Security Initiatives and NATO and EU Security Concepts – the Case of the Western Balkans

Milenković Mirjana B. (Načelnik Centra za mirovne operacije, Ministarstvo odbrane Republike Srbije), mirjanamilenkovic07@yahoo.com

Countries that have common security interests are united on a regional level, and regional security initiatives represent a space in which cooperation materialises practically, with concrete security benefits. On the other hand, the NATO concept of smart defence and the EU concept of unification and sharing as security tools of institutions, whose membership these countries aspire to or are members of the Western Balkans, confirm the established regional cooperation while also opening a space for some new forms of cooperation. Therefore, the subject of this research is how security integration processes, implemented through regional security initiatives and NATO and EU security concepts, affect the evolution of the Western Balkan sub-complex. The hypothesis that will be confirmed in the paper is that the security and stability of the Western Balkan countries depend on their national capacities being interconnected in the regional security network and supported by global security concepts. The theory of the regional security concept is suitable for this type of research because it mostly relies on the socio-constructivist theoretical framework, which implies that the forms of the international system determine states’ behaviour, with an emphasis on social structures and facts.

Keywords: Western Balkans, regional security initiatives, NATO concept Smart Defense Initiative, EU concept Pooling & Sharing