Faculty of Political Sciences

State-building is a topic of particular interest in international relations scholarship. The concept of state-building implies an inter-national mechanism applied either as a response to the potential failure of states or as a means of halting their further decline. Given that the matter of weak states contains a very strong security component, it is worth examination also within the framework of security studies. This paper builds upon the assumption that state-building is a mechanism which can significantly affect the removal of security threats stemming from the weakness of states. Despite the fact that the problem of weak states (as well as their failure, i.e. the decline of the state as the ultimate form) is global in scope, its security dimension mainly encompasses national and regional levels.For this reason, Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) and the corresponding concept of security put forward by the Copenhagen School have been chosen as a theoretical framework for analysing state-building and its impact on regional security dynamics. This paper argues that state-building is a factor that can affect regional security dynamics. In order to prove this, we use the analytical tools of RSCT and view state-building as a form of ’penetration’ (thrust)by external actors within a given RSC or within a regional sub-complex. By applying this approach, we also contribute to the theoretical debate on RSCT. The Western Balkans have been used as an example of state-building representing a form of ’penetration’. In other words, this paper describes the influence which the European Union has, due to its enlargement policy, in the area of the Western Balkans security sub-complex.

Keywords: state-building, Regional Security Complex Theory,
international security, security dynamics, thrust, Western Balkans,
weak states.

Actorness and Power of the European Union

Abstract

By applying the realist, liberal and constructivist approaches to International Relations, in the light of the position the European Union holds in world politics, we are going to answer the question whether the aforementioned theoretical approaches see (do not see) a global actorness for the European Union. Each of the approaches answers the question of the EU’s own manifestation of its actor capacity—by means of using the concepts of the hard, the soft, and the normative power in the analysis. This shall be a way to investigating the degree of EU’s (global) actorness, as well as to testing its actorness through the actual implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy via the three aforementioned concepts of power.

Keywords: European Union, soft power, hard power, normative power, global actor, theories, international relations, neorealism, neoliberalism, constructivism."

Journal of Regional Security was established in 2006 under the name Western Balkans Security Observer. The Journal acquired its present name and form in 2012.

Dear readers,

Let me inform you that the Western Balkans Security Observer has changed its name to Journal of Regional Security (JRS) starting with 2012. The JRS is published twice a year in English language.
The Journal of Regional Security is the first peer-reviewed journal specializing in the field of regional security studies. Subject areas include: security communities, regional security complexes, regional security sector reform and governance, security regimes, regional conflicts, security integration, region-building and comparative regional security research.
The JRS is intended for international security scholars and policy makers from South East Europe but also from other established or emerging regions of the world. It aims to bring academic security studies communities from the Western Balkans not only closer to each other but also closer to security studies and security policy communities from other regions of the world thus enabling smarter and more sustainable regional policy solutions.
http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/publicationdetails.aspx?publicationId=d8a76fe4-af3f-4beb-999a-46e89a9496fc

Journal of Regional Security was established in 2006 under the name Western Balkans Security Observer. The Journal acquired its present name and form in 2012.

The Journal of Regional Security is the first peer-reviewed journal specializing in the field of regional security studies. Subject areas include: security communities, regional security complexes, regional security sector reform and governance, security regimes, regional conflicts, security integration, region-building and comparative regional security research.
The JRS is intended for international security scholars and policy makers from South East Europe but also from other established or emerging regions of the world. It aims to bring academic security studies communities from the Western Balkans not only closer to each other but also closer to security studies and security policy communities from other regions of the world thus enabling smarter and more sustainable regional policy solutions.

Predsedavanje Srbije OEBS-om u 2015. godini je prilika za ponovno razmatranje jugoslovenskog nasleđa u KEBS-u i ispitivanje mogućnosti Srbije da svoj spoljnopolitički identitet izgrađuje u odnosu na teme od šireg značaja za bezbednost i saradnju u Evropi. Helsinški završni akt je izvor normativnih načela koja u velikoj meri oblikuju očekivanja od međusobnih odnosa ali i pogleda na svet koji imaju države učesnice. OEBS nastupa kao akter u procesu međunarodne socijalizacije, a države učesnice usvajaju norme i standarde koji utiču na stvaranje svesti o miroljubivom i predvidivom ponašanju, te izgradnji bezbednosne zajednice. Sledstveno tome, OEBS ima ulogu u izgradnji spoljnopolitičkog identiteta država učesnica. Jugoslavija je svoj spoljnopolitički identitet oblikovala u okviru KEBS, ali je istovremeno učestvovala u stvaranju normativnih standarda u ovoj instituciji. Dinamika međunarodne socijalizacije i odnosa između KEBS/OEBS i Jugoslavije/Srbije imaju tri razdoblja: 1975-1992 (srednja sila koja stvara normativne standarde), 1992-2000 (urušavanje i kriza spoljnopolitičkog identiteta) i 2000-2015 (međunarodna re-socijalizacija male države i korišćenje usluga OEBS-a).

Ključne reči: OEBS, Srbija, Jugoslavija, identitet, spoljna politika


THE SOCIALIZING ROLE OF THE OSCE AND RECONSTITUTION OF FOREIGN POLICY IDENTITY OF SERBIA IN THE POST-YUGOSLAV PERIOD

Abstract: The Helsinki Final Act is a source of normative principles that largely shape the expectations in mutual relations and the worldviews between the OSCE participating states. OSCE plays out the role as an actor in international socialization of states, and the participating states adopt norms and standards that affect the building of their consciousness about the peaceful and predictable behaviour, as well as the security community-building. Consequently, the OSCE co-constitutes the foreing policy identity of the participating states. The former Yugoslavia created its foreign policy identity within the CSCE, and it took part in the creation of the normative standards within the institution. The dynamics of the international socialization and relations between the CSCE/OSCE and Yugoslavia/Serbia has three periods: 1975-1992 (Yugoslavia as a middle power, creator of normative standards within the CSCE); 1992-2000 (Yugoslav wars, and the collapse of the foreign policy identity of FR Yugoslavia); 2000-2015 (international re-socialization of a small state and Serbia as a subject of the OSCE activities). Serbia’s OSCE chairmanship in 2015 is seen as an opportunity to re-consider the Yugoslav CSCE heritage and taking stock of the opportunities for Serbia to construct its contemporary foreign policy identity based on issues that are of broader importance for security and cooperation in Europe; a chance for thinking and imagining foreign and security policy of Serbia both inside and outside of the framework of the Balkan regionalism in which it is located at the beginning of the 21st century.

Keywords: OSCE, Serbia, Yugoslavia, identity, foreign policy

The aim of this paper is to examine the foreign and security policy of Serbia, and to look at the role of Europeanisation in shaping its state identity. Europeanisation has had varied success in small states across the Western Balkans, but it has not transformed the state identity of Serbia significantly from a comparative perspective. There have been no attempts to analyse Serbia's foreign policy creation process through the lenses of small state studies so far, and this paper presents a contribution to filling this gap in literature. Specifically, my aim is to answer the following question: why have the states in the Western Balkans shown different foreign policy trajectories under the process of Europeanisation, despite their shared socio-political environment and traditions overlaid with Europeanisation? In this paper, I propose an analytical framework that uses small states literature and combines it with International Relations in the part concerning the role of ideational and institutional factors (state identity, the EU). The dynamics of Serbia's post-2000 foreign policy is analysed through the framework that combines the concept of identity convergence/ divergence based on the work of Jelena Subotić (2011), and a constructivist framework for the analysis of foreign policy developed by Thomas . This represents a contribution to alternative explanations of foreign policy formation and the process of Europeanisation in the Western Balkans.

„SMALL STATES IN A WORLD OF REGIONS AND THE
CHALLENGES OF MULTIPOLARIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY“

In academic discussions and political dicourse on multipolarity at the beginning of the 21st century, great and emerging powers are perceived as major subjects of change, as well as the users of a transforming regionalized international system of states. On the other hand, small states have been sidelined in considering of the initial phase of the process of redistribution of economic power and the effects that the resulting political status-seeking may have in an altered international system. By dominantly focusing on structural effects of power distribution, IR research fails to provide for a more nuanced understanding of state agency and dynamics that is constituted by many, more or less important, ‘pawns of international politics’ or able Lilliputians − with their positions and roles in the processes of globalization and internationalization under different political, economic and security regionalisms. Drawing from the literatures on theories of IR, small states and regional security, this paper proceeds in two directions. Firstly, by considering various meanings of multipolarity – from its materiality, to its ideational and discoursive structure – it is possible to position states vis-a-vis what meaning of this concept is dominant in their political discourses. Secondly, in the context of a wider European regionalism, and post-Yugoslav and Caucasus regions more specifically, dimensions and characters of the relations of China and Russia with the small states in the two regions are explored. On the example of Serbia and Azerbaijan and shaping of their foreign policies in relations with the European Union, Russia, and China, an assessment of the extent and constraints of the agency of small states in international context is provided.

Keywords: International Relations, multipolarity, regional security, discourse, agency, Serbia, European Union, Russia, China, Azerbaijan.

This paper explores different and changing receptions and uses of ‘East’ and ‘West’ in the foreign policy discourses of Serbia and Croatia, as puzzling cases of state identity configuration. The author suggests and gives meaning to the conception of ‘small state reality’ and offers a perspective on the role of historical, contextual and situational elements of state identity in the understanding of foreign policy orientations and agency. The paper discusses the productive possibilities of such a reading in the light of the relational turn in small states’ literature and recent discussions about ‘non-Western’ international relations.

Keywords: Small states, identity, discourse, foreign policy, regional security, Balkans, Serbia, Croatia

Apstrakt: Rad razmatra ključne rasprave u savremenim međunarodnim odnosima i kritički predstavlja i ocenjuje uvide teoretičara u njihovu sadržinu, sistematizujući ih u analitičkom okviru zasnovanom na Ventovom ontološkom zaokretu, inspirisanom Rozenauovom rekonceptualizacijom promene u svetskoj politici nakon završetka Hladnog rata. Svest o složenosti ovakvog zadatka je prisutna, no pomenuti okvir bi, ako ništa drugo, trebalo da ponudi čitaocu svojevrsnu mapu koja olakšava snalaženje u naizgled nepreglednom i zamršenom svetu teorije međunarodnih odnosa, njenih trajnih sporenja i novih istraživačkih tema. Autor je posebnu pažnju posvetio karakterizaciji discipline u stanju " teorijskog mira " , odnosno značenjima i implikacijama danas preovlađujućeg teorijskog pluralizma i eklekticizma u međunarodnim odnosima. Autor ostavlja zaključak otvorenim budući da nije moguće pouzdano predvideti na koji način će naučna zajednica odgovoriti na ove perspektive, bilo da se krene putem prodornijeg dijaloga u ranom dobu teorijskog pluralizma, ili da se više radi na " kritičkom rešavanju problema " koje svakodnevno ispostavlja turbulentna svetska politika.

Ključne reči: međunarodni odnosi, teorija, metateorija, ontologija, epistemologija, debate, konstruktivizam, pluralizam, eklekticizam, sociologija međunarodnih odnosa.

Understanding the contemporary identity-role construction of small states in South-East Europe is closely linked to the process of reshaping the relative geometry of regional influence of the EU-centre and its powerful marginal actors. This has become increasingly obvious since 2008 with the unraveling of the global economic crisis, Russia’s revived influence in the region, and the crisis of EU enlargement − processes that are usually perceived as challenges to the prevalent European conception of order. This paper seeks to explore the interaction of more powerful actors from both the European ‘ center’ and its ‘margins’ with the small states on the South-East margin, by developing the framework that builds on Noel Parker’s theory of ‘positive marginality’ and the updated ‘constellation theory’ by Hans Mouritzen and Anders Wivel. Theoretically, I propose the concepts of ‘marginality constellation’, ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ margins, to understand how small states frame their understanding of agency in world politics more broadly. Empirically, the paper delves into Croatia’s and Serbia’s foreign policies from 2014 on, to illustrate how the two countries manage their foreign policy identity narratives to respond to the shifting geopolitical centre-margin discourses of the EU and Russia in light of the crisis in Ukraine.

By focusing on the Western Balkans, this paper asks two questions:
first, how small states that are both EU members and candidates for membership understand their role within this normatively powered order and, second, what their roles and agency mean for the order they are socialised into via democratic norms. The notions of hierarchies and orders are conceptualised in this paper as processes of norm diffusion and understood within the socialisation of democratic norms, which, according to the literature, can be institutionalised, rejected, or modified locally. First, I argue that such measurements can help us understand how the EU’s practices shape the broader understanding of its actorness in normative and strategic terms toward the Western Balkans. Second, I scrutinise national strategies related to the processes of state-building, security, economy, and society to demonstrate how Serbia and Croatia present their agency as supporting and affirming of the prevalent conception of order in norm localisation, or being more critical of
it in the process of localised norm contestation. Third, the effects of EU approaches that provide more tactical and technical views of Europeanisation, rather than (a strategic) full thrust on enlargement, are discussed in the conclusion by bringing the comparative insights together and parsing them by means of the shelter theory for small states.

Over the course of the past decade there has been a growing interest in the academic study of regional security, as part of the broader literature on regionalisms and notably as by the authors of the Copenhagen School. In their highly influential book Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security, the most authoritative account of
the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) to date,1 Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver restate the cause for a regionalist approach to security in a synthesis of neorealism and constructivism in IR. Since “threats travel more easily over short distances than over long ones” they propose that international security dynamic clusters into distinct regional
security complexes. Those specific security regions are defined as “a set of units whose major processes of securitization, desecuritization, or both are so interlinked that their security problems cannot reasonably be analysed or resolved apart from one another” (p.44). With hindsight, a decade after Regions and Powers, and a quarter-century since
the landmark formulation of security sectors and regional security in People, States, and Fear, it is a convenient time to take stock and look at the perspectives of the debates that are generated by the study of Regional Security Complexes. Journal of Regional Security
has opened its pages for contributions that address RSCT from various theoretical and multidisciplinary perspectives, and the authors in this issue of the journal have ventured to offer theoretical accounts, empirical analysis, as well as critique and reflection upon the
meaning and applications of RSCT in the period that indicates possibilities for significant changes in patterns and dynamics of regional security in the early 21st century.

This work is focused on reporting of daily newspapers in Serbia during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and specifics of dominant narratives and relationship between the government and popular press. The content research includes the first half of 2020, when 1,271 from eight influential daily papers were analysed. While the representatives of the quality press have tried to steer the attention of citizens and introduce serious questions most tabloids trivialised the danger as another spectacle which will secure larger sales irrespective of social consequences and ethical norms of journalistic profession. Objectivity and unbiasedness are sacrificed for sensationalism, spectacle and political clientelism. Celebritization of medical profession has only led to spread of confusion in public opinion, while revealing how political elites eagerly use crisis for promotion of their own ideas and programs, instead of professional debate.

The research is aimed at showing the ways in which the media image of the European migrant crisis changed on the front pages of Serbia's dailies from 2015, when this crisis hit the headlines, until the end of 2020, when it subdued substantially, but continued to find its place occasionally on the front pages. The lack of discussion in public space is observed, so that the tone of the narrative is adjusted to the opinion of the ruling structures. Simplification and stigmatization are specific for tabloids that, under the guise of market competition, resort to sensationalism, problematic news and unconfirmed information, while serious press rather tends to promote the human aspect of the crisis, with a more profound analysis of the context. Since spring 2016, the writing about this topic has become less intense, but also a slight qualitative change in the narratives in which the emphasis is laid on the possibility of migrants' longer stay in this territory as well. Moreover, w...