Regional Security Cooperation in the Western Balkans

Security in the Western Balkans is no longer a peripheral matter—it is a central test of Europe’s ability to build a resilient and integrated security architecture in the face of mounting uncertainty. As war returns to the continent and the fault lines of global power shift, the Western Balkans sits at the intersection of unfinished statehood, fragile democratic institutions, and intensified geopolitical competition. In this complex environment, regional security cooperation has emerged not just as a policy choice, but as a strategic necessity. This report brings together the insights of leading experts on security and European integration to assess the state of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans and propose a forward-looking agenda. Published under the Advancing Regional Security Cooperation in the Western Balkans (ASCEND-WB6) project, within the IGNITA initiative and supported by the Open Society Foundations—Western Balkans, the report is designed to provoke a deeper, more consequential conversation on what it means to build meaningful security collaboration in an era marked by volatility and unpredictability.

The central argument is straightforward: no single Western Balkan country, regardless of its NATO status or progress on EU accession, can meet the scale and complexity of contemporary threats alone. Fragmentation—whether due to bilateral disputes, uneven institutional capacities, or divergent foreign policy alignments—has left the region vulnerable to both internal destabilization and external manipulation. Hybrid threats, disinformation, malign influence, cyberattacks, and organized crime networks do not respect borders. Yet cooperation remains reactive, under-institutionalized, and frequently sidelined by political distrust and competing allegiances.

Drawing on examples from joint law enforcement operations, EU integration frameworks, the Berlin Process, and civil society initiatives, this report maps both the achievements and shortcomings of current cooperation efforts. It also underscores the broader geopolitical stakes: the Western Balkans is not simply a region in transition—it is a proving ground for the EU’s credibility as a security actor and for the democratic agency of its aspiring members. The objective is not to offer yet another policy blueprint, but to help shift the narrative—from one of conditionality and compliance to one of co-responsibility and solidarity. Regional security is a public good. It must be produced collectively, anchored in mutual trust, institutional interoperability, and a shared vision for the region’s role in Europe’s evolving security order. This report is a contribution to that effort.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of any affiliated institution or organization.