Development and security: Geopolitical aspects of demographic changes in South-Eastern Serbia

Abstract

The paper discusses the implications of demographic changes in South East Serbia on development, security and stability, that is, instability in Serbia and the Balkans. These demographic changes are conditioned by the process of transition, more precisely by the sub-processes that are its integral part, among which the de-industrialization and the privately executed privatization are the most influential in the negative sense. In a short time, the applications of these concepts of development have led to the economic devastation of Serbia, the impoverishment of its population and the deepening of regional disproportions that have promoted South Eastern Serbia as it's economically and demographically most vulnerable parts. The focus of the analysis is on the processes of natural and mechanical population movement in the border municipalities of South Eastern Serbia (migration, aging and depopulation), with a special emphasis on their influence on the development of these regions and their geopolitical stability and prospects. The author points out the need to redefine and adopt the strategy of balanced regional development in Serbia that would reformulate the development policy of the border municipalities through priority goals, preventing the demographic emptying and encouraging the economic development of this geo-space and at the same time, preserving the geostrategic demographic balance as a condition of permanent geopolitical stability.

Keywords

• demographic change
• South-Eastern Serbia
• regional development
• geopolitical stability
• security