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Европа през 21 век : Регионалната сигурност и необходимите реформи в Европейския съюз

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Bulgarian,Macedonian

The annual academic forum of National and International Security Department this year is devoted to regional security and reforms in the European Union. Foreign academics and researchers from Poland, Macedonia, Serbia, Russia and other countries are taking part in this broad forum.Why have we chosen this topic?Today, in the first quarter of the 21st century, it appears that the world is on the verge of tolerance of risks and threats. The range of these threats is enormously broad - from the danger of wars between countries and coalitions, to violence among people within states. The world is in a period of devastated global equilibrium and a slowly developing new equilibrium. The temporal distance between these two states opened a place for the manifestation of chaos.In this increasingly difficult to predict world, the European Union has not been so far under such a criticism as the present since its creation. It comes from the ultimate right and the ultimate left, pass through the center and involve more and more ideologists and representatives, even the classical left and center-right political parties. But even a glimpse of their criticism does not show a way out of the crisis. It does not show how to preserve what is valuable in politics, economics and democracy that Europeans have undoubtedly enjoyed and continue to enjoy and how to transfer it into a future European Project.

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Ислямистката радикализация в Eвропейския съюз и нейните български измерения. Политики и мерки за превенция и противодействие

Author(s): Jivko Dimitrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Over the past few years in the European Union, mainly among the large Muslim diasporas, there is a rapid spread and strengthening of Islamist radicalization. A similar process, albeit in a much more limited sizes began to be seen in Bulgaria. Radicalization that leads to violence is a phenomenon that can lead to acts of terrorism and endanger the fundamental values of the European Union – democracy, human rights, freedom and the rule of law. This demands the Member States of the Union to undertake adequate measures to counter effectively radicalization and terrorism, with a major emphasis on prevention.

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The Foreign Fighter Phenomenon and Radicalization in the Western Balkans: Understanding the Context, 2012-2016

Author(s): Vlado Azinović / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Over the last five years, a rise in radicalizing forces in the Western Balkans has manifested in the emergence of the foreign fighter phenomenon – the single most obvious indication of radicalization into violent extremism in the region. This has brought new security challenges and risks, including the departures of citizens to rebel-held territories in the Middle East. While some of these individuals are women, children, and elderly people who have not become foreign fighters, it is believed that from the end of 2012 through the beginning of 2016, up to 950 persons from Western Balkans countries travelled to Syria and Iraq. [...]

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ALBANIA: Radicalization and the Governance of Islam in Albania

Author(s): Arjan Dyrmishi / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

With some hundred or more Albanian citizens having now joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), radicalization has become a salient issue in both policy and scholarly domains in Albania. Given the Albanian tradition of religious tolerance and moderation, the quest to understand and explain the foreign fighter phenomenon has sparked extensive debate – in media, among the public, and within academia. Explanations for this trend have focused mainly on the socioeconomic factors affecting certain local communities and individuals, and on the failure of state institutions in some sectors, including in security, intelligence, and education. In general, academic researchers and pundits alike argue in favor of a more robust response by the government. [...]

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ALBANIA: Albanian Migrants and Risks of Radicalization

Author(s): Ebi Spahiu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The case of Albania – a new NATO member and an aspiring EU state – reflects that of many Western Balkans countries which have seen their citizens, largely from Muslim-majority areas, join extremist organizations in the Middle East since the 2011 outset of the Syrian conflict. The number of foreign fighters hailing from Albania and the rest of the region peaked when Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the alleged leader of the so-called Islamic State (ISIL), declared the formation of a new “caliphate” in 2014, in territories in Syria and Iraq, and called on Muslims from around the world to migrate there. Security and intelligence services in the region quickly took action against homegrown extremist cells that recruited and facilitated the travel of citizens in response to Al-Baghdadi’s call. However, questions remain over what motivated citizens from Albania to join extremist organizations and the pattern of their radicalization. [...]

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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The Complex Ecology of Islamic Narratives and Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Muhamed Jusić / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The current religious life of Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about returning to domestic traditions and reducing the post-communist euphoria in public demonstration of religion. The fall of the socialist order led to this euphoria, which was intensified by the aggression and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina – seen, in the minds of Bosnian Muslims, as aimed at destroying Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and Bosniaks as a people. Meanwhile, the pluralization of the Islamic religious scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina has resulted in the emergence of non-traditional forms of Islamic religious practice. On one hand, this pluralization occurred within the Islamic Community as a consequence of its openness toward other madhhabs and Islamic experiences, and as a result of its exposure to globalization and other broader social and cultural shifts. On the other hand, it occurred outside the Islamic Community and, sporadically, against it, through advocates of different alternative, and in principle, sloppy and rigid interpretations of Islam. The vast majority of Bosnian Muslims perceive these alternative views as attacks on the traditional Bosnian practice of Islam, and they reject them as unacceptable attempts to replace a religion of joy, serenity, and tolerance with a religion of gloominess, discontent, and exclusiveness; attempts to abandon a religion that palliates in order to accept a religion that aggravates.

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CROATIA: ISIL’s Western Balkan Caliphettes

Author(s): Anita Perešin / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

With the June 2014 establishment of a “caliphate” in the territories of Iraq and Syria, announced by the self-proclaimed “caliph” and leader of ISIL Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his appeal to all Muslims to migrate to these territories has been viewed by some “true believers” in the Western Balkans as a mandatory religious duty. A new wave of Muslim men and women from the Balkans, motivated by a combination of religious and other factors, have left home for the “caliphate,” where the Balkan contingent has supported groups fighting the Assad regime since the beginning of the civil war in Syria. The number of Western Balkans citizens in ISIL territories is not precisely known, but up to 1,000 are thought to make up the Balkan contingent – including male fighters, a much smaller percentage of female fighters, women and children who accompanied their husbands and fathers, some women who traveled alone (often in order to marry), and a small number of teenagers, most of whom have left home without the consent of their parents. The motives and expectations of women in this contingent are difficult to grasp; for, despite ISIL propaganda that compares living in its territory to being at a “Disneyland for Muslims,” the group is among the most notorious terrorist organizations in the world, infamous for its brutal abuse, derogation, and mistreatment of women. [...]

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MONTENEGRO: Montenegro and the Foreign Fighter Phenomenon

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Like other countries in the region, Montenegro has had its fair share of citizens participating as foreign fighters on battlefields abroad; and for the purpose of this study, we will focus on Montenegrin foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. Due to its geographical location and shared borders with countries that have dealt to a greater degree with this phenomenon – such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Albania – the number of Montenegrin foreign fighters joining the fronts of the so-called Islamic State has varied over time, reaching its peak in 2014. Numbers in 2016 were the lowest they have been since the start of the phenomenon; and one can argue that this is the result of legal and operational mechanisms implemented by the Montenegrin government in 2015. [...]

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KOSOVO: The Foreign Fighter Phenomenon in Kosovo: Covering a Blind Spot

Author(s): Shpend Kursani,Arbër Fetiu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The recent emergence of the foreign fighter phenomenon, which has entangled citizens of Kosovo, has attracted significant attention among policymakers, security analysts, and academics at the local and international levels. In Kosovo, the jihadist ideology linked to the phenomenon is unprecedented, at least insofar as its scale. Even the Afghan Wars (1978-1992 and 2001-present) and other Middle Eastern conflicts, which have attracted some 5,000 to 20,000 foreign fighters – many from Europe and the United States – have not inspired certain elements of Kosovo’s Muslim population like the recent conflict in Syria has. Many authors have pointed to the ease of travel and the proximity of the Syrian conflict as important factors in explaining the extraordinary numbers of European foreign fighters taking part in the war there. Yet, the Bosnian war (1992-1995), which attracted a few thousand fighters from around the world, including from other parts of Europe, did not attract fighters from Kosovo in any significant numbers, despite their even closer proximity and potential geostrategic interest in fighting Serbia. [...]

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MACEDONIA: The Threat Posed by Foreign Terrorist Fighters to the Republic of Macedonia and the Western Balkans

Author(s): Vasko Šutarov / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The topic of religious radicalism in the Western Balkans has long attracted the attention of media, researchers, and security services. Ill-advised policy approaches to the issue, along with a lack of knowledge and information, mean the phenomenon has often been misused for political aims. In the last decade, reports about “growing terrorist threats,” “Islamic terrorism,” “terrorist training camps,” “dangerous Salafists,” etc. have burgeoned, with most of these “warnings” coming from self-proclaimed “security experts” and irresponsible politicians – who are regularly invited to present their security assessments in the media and at various conferences. Several incidents involving Salafi adherents from the region have further contributed to the idea that the Western Balkans is under threat from religious radicalism. In this climate, full of unconfirmed information and irrelevant speculation, security services have occasionally tried to calm the situation and relieve feelings of uncertainty among citizens by issuing official statements. [...]

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SERBIA: Radicalization in Serbia: The Youth of Sandžak between a Hammer and an Anvil

Author(s): Aida Ćorović / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The end of the 20th century brought deep change to the Balkans, including redefined national aspirations, and the disintegration of one large state and the emergence of new, smaller states. The period was marked not only by economic crisis and the dissolution of political systems, but above all by the brutal and bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia, which had been an important geostrategic meeting point of East and West for years. A wave of conflicts inspired by political extremism soon awakened religious radicalism, and in new and rather unexpected places, such as Albania, where the ban on religion was lifted after the fall of a brutal Communist dictatorship in the early 1990s. This total religious prohibition was replaced by religious freedom, opening the doors to the influence of global Muslim extremism; and pressured by events in Afghanistan, Albania became a destination and temporary refuge for Afghan mujahideen. [...]

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SLOVENIA: From Conversion to Jihad: Contemporary Janissaries – A Slovenian Case Study

Author(s): Simona Hrastnik Čuček / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

As the Syrian crisis has escalated, Slovenia – like a number of European countries – has faced the departure of volunteers for Middle Eastern battlefields. There has been a growing interest among young members of local radical Salafi associations to engage in jihad, which compelled the first two such departures of young men, both converts, in the summer of 2013. They were followed by a third in October of that same year. The radicalization of these young men occurred very quickly, with less than a year passing between their conversion to Islam and their departures for foreign conflict zones. These cases serve as proof that the radicalization process can be expedited by aggressive religious propaganda, particularly that viewed on the Internet, which keeps adherents up-to-date on and personally invested in the situation in Syria and Iraq. The Internet is also the platform of choice for extremist activities of almost any type that address people in their local languages, as part of an effort to spread propaganda. [...]

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Сборник с доклади от юбилейната международна научна конференция „Рискове пред етнорелигиозния мир в контекста на националната и международната сигурност в Югоизточна и Централна Европа“. Том 1

Author(s): Trendafil Atanasov Mitev,Anguel Gueorguiev Anastassov,Anna Mantarova,Mihail Stoyanov Mirchev,Ivaylo Hristov Hristov,Evgeni Petrov Manev,Yordan Stoyanov Doykov,Petar Yordanov Nenkov,Georgi Stefkov Kulov,Rusi Vladimirov Yanev,Katya Zhivkova Mihaylova,Miglena Ivanova Ivanova,Asen Kolev Asenov,Aleksandra Jovanović,Aneta Cvetkovic,Nikola Jovanovic,Georgi Lyubenov Manolov,Yordan Ivanov Bakalov,Gena Tsvetkova Velkovska,Vasil Hristov Georgiev,Valeri Yordanov Velkovski,Teodor Danailov Dechev,Plamen Nikolov Bogdanov,Atanaska Ivanova Tuntova,Emil Angelov Madzharov,Yoanna Rosenova Andonova-Tsvetanova,Voyn Konstantinov Bozhinov,Kostadin Vasilev Yazov,Rositsa Roumenova Rogova,Chavdar Petrov Groshev,Petar Grigorov Gramatikov,Mihail Ivanov Mihaylov,Boyko Mitkov Petev,Nedyalka Ivanova Petrova,Vesselin Panov Loulanski,Ivan Stoychev Vinarov,Emilia Angelova Kasova,Diana Ivanova Petrova,Kamelia Petkova Tsvetkova-Nedyalkova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian

The present Proceedings of the Graduate School of Security and Economics (Volumes I and II) reflect the highly academic and highly productive International Research Conference on „Risks to Ethno-religious Peace in the Context of National and International Security in Southeastern and Central Europe“ held in November 2023. The edition contains the main and plenary papers. They are structured in four scientific panels focusing on topics such as „National Security and Ethno-religious Peace – Dilemmas, Challenges and Prospects“, „Risks to Ethno-religious Peace and National Politics – Security Aspects“, „State Politics, Ethnic Relations, National and International Security“ and „Ethno-religious Peace, National Security and Social Sciences“. Among the authors are Bulgarian and foreign proven names in scientific and academic circles.

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Националната сигурност и етнорелигиозният мир – мир, дилеми и перспективи

Author(s): Arseni Emilianov Kolarov,Nadezhda Vasileva Dzhankova,Rositsa Petrova Hambarliiska / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

Ethno-religious peace refers to the ability of different ethnic and religious groups to live together in an environment where there is understanding and mutual respect, and also to the protection of the state and its citizens from internal and external threats. Ethno-religious peace and national security can be interconnected in various aspects. One of these is diplomacy and the peace process: protracted conflicts that take place between ethnic or religious groups may require targeted efforts to promote peace and stability. Peace development and peace processes can support national security.

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