Asymmetric Threats-Common Response in Western Balkans

Štrbac Katarina (PhD col), katarina. strbac@mod.gov.rs
Mitrović Miroslav (PhD LTC, are currently employed at the Strategic Research Institute, Sector for defence policy, Ministry of Defence of Republic of Serbia), miroslav.mitrovic@mod.gov.rs

In the last decade of the 20th century, the Balkans featured in the critical events of the century, such as the dissolution of the Former Yugoslavia, the collapse of the Soviet Block, the transition of the former socialist, state-run economies into market-oriented economies, the great shift in understanding security concepts, as well as in many other events, which had significant impact on the countries in the Region and resulted in pacification of a very volatile area in Europe. On one hand the Region was calming down, on the other, new, asymmetric threats emerged, and they are not exclusive to the countries in the Region, they pertained to world-wide trends threatening global security. Global threats require global response. It is very often the case that regional organizations are not enough. They, however, may be a solid starting point or foundation for boosting security in certain areas. In order to strengthen regional security, some common activities should be undertaken, and they are: common definition of asymmetric threats, regional vulnerability assessment, and establishment of common regional mechanisms in response to the common threats.

Keywords: asymmetric threats, regional security, common security approach, security integration