State, State-Building and Security in the Western Balkans

Abstract

After the intra-state wars and conflicts in the Balkans region, insecurities caused by weak states still constitute an important concern for the stability of the region. Therefore, the international community has engaged in some attempts for rebuilding weak states through state-building efforts in order to prevent the spill-over effects of insecurities that originated from them. Because, security issues such as arms, drugs and human trafficking, organized crime, corruption, immigration, and refugee problems in the Western Balkans threaten the democracy, the rule of law, human rights, political stability, and economic progress within the region. Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo as the weak states of the region suffer from deficits in legitimacy, capacity, and provision of public goods. That’s why they are unable to implement effective development policies for their citizens’ basic needs in terms of human security. This paper aimed to analyze the relationship between state-building process and its security implications in the Western Balkans

Keywords

• weak state
• state-building
• security issues
• western balkans