Confronting Authoritarian currents in the Western Balkans

Sbunker and the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) hosted a group of representatives from the think-tanks from the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as scholars, and senior government officials to discuss the authoritarian currents in the Western Balkans; foreign influence and the public space. The regional conference was organized with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).

The purpose of the conference was to have a deeper conversation on the challenges for building a sustainable liberal democracy, and designing a research agenda for the near future. Th conference highlighted the need for the civil society to develop capacities to monitor foreign influence, and for the non-government organizations to advance their facilitation efforts for cross-regional cooperation.

Participants discussed the consequences of the fading European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans, including the ramifications for a lack of a normative framework to guide policy and decision-making process in the countrie sof the region.