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21. The Biden Agenda: How the new administration can help Western Balkans out of stagnation

Author:
Muhamet Brajshori
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
President Biden’s administration has shown signs of seeking to focus in the region by having a nor-mative-based policy in place to addresses issues that empower the region and help the region by undertaking reforms and making progress on Euro-Atlantic integration. One of the main aspects of this re-engagement will be the sensitive political issues that hold the region in deadlocks, such as the complicated relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and the risk that Bosnia and Herzegovina will turn into a totally failed state in the heart of Europe. A key element of Washington’s engagement will be closer coordination with European allies to complete the remaining open issues in the Western Balkans. But the challenges are immense and the expectations are high.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Regional Integration, and Joe Biden
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, Balkans, United States of America, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

22. Kosovo Security Barometer Special Edition on Corruption, Rule of Law and Police integrity in Kosovo

Author:
Shpat Balaj
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
The first section introduces the level of trust expressed by respondents on the relevant institutions (justice, security and municipal institutions), as well as the direct contact of the surveyed respondents with these institutions during 2018. Similar to previous years, security institutions are leading when it comes to public trust when compared to other institutions analysed in this special edition. The second section of the report interprets key security threats and risks in Kosovo. Given that corruption has been ranked as the highest problem to Kosovo’s national security, this section is focused on views of respondents towards corruption in the relevant institutions. Apart from general interpretation of data on corruption in Courts, Prosecution, Kosovo Police and Municipalities, the report offers cross-tabulated data analysis based on regions, rural/urban areas, gender balance, and ethnic composition of respondents for all targeted institutions. While, the third or final section of the report provides a detailed interpretation of open-ended and closed-ended questions of the 2018 survey of Kosovo Security Barometer on main issues harming police integrity in Kosovo. Accordingly, results presenting opinions of respondents on corruption within sectors of the Kosovo Police mirror a better understanding on what are the most and the least corrupted police sectors in Kosovo. Furthermore, data analysis through cross-tabulated results (based on regions, areas, gender balance, and ethnic background) provides an exhaustive elaboration of respondents’ attitudes towards police corruption in Kosovo. Given that the Kosovo Security Barometer’s survey was conducted in the second half of 2018 (September-October 2018), thus it does not reflect some of the developments that have occurred from November 2018 to March 2019.
Topic:
Security, Corruption, Rule of Law, and Police
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

23. Public perceptions towards public safety, internal and external threats

Author:
Shpat Balaj and Mentor Vrajolli
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
The first chapter of the report presents the perceptions on how safe citizens’ feel in Kosovo and their respective communities do. Moreover, the public safety chapter includes the citizens’ perception on different issues that potentially endanger the community and how much of a threat the citizens’ perceive those issues. On the other hand, the second chapter consists of citizens’ perceptions on what are the key internal and external threats to the national security of Kosovo and presents their opinion on how much of a threat do several issues present to the security of Kosovo. The key findings of this report are: Respondents feel safe in their immediate communities. However, the results show a tendency for the feeling of insecurity to slightly increase as respondents expand from their immediate communities; When asked to identify a threat posed to the community without stating pre-defined options of what the potential threats would be, the majority of respondents (43 percent) declared that there are no threats at all at their respective communities; When presented with pre-defined options of different phenomena that potentially endanger the community, 64 percent of the respondents believe that the emigration of Kosovo citizens’ is a high threat or a very high threat for the community; When asked to identify the key internal national security threats, without pre-defined options on what the potential threats would be, 24 percent of the respondents listed corruption/nepotism as the key internal threat; When presented with pre-defined options of different phenomena that potentially endanger the national security of Kosovo, 88 percent of respondents share the opinion that unemployment is a high threat or very high threat for the national security of Kosovo; In regard to external national security threats, 44 percent of the respondent believe that Serbia is the largest external security threat for Kosovo.
Topic:
Security, Public Opinion, Threat Perception, and Public Safety
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

24. Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue: Examining respondents' perceptions

Author:
Plator Avdiu
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
This report provides a comprehensive and detailed data interpretation concerning perception of the public opinion based on a pre-defined set of questions on the issue at hand. In this regard, this report presents the 2019’ Kosovo Security Barometer respondents’ perception towards partition of Kosovo and territorial autonomy, including Association of Serb Municipalities which are perceived as national security threats to Kosovo by majority of respondents.
Topic:
Security, Public Opinion, Data, and Dialogue
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Serbia

25. Challenges and practices of inclusiveness in Kosovo's security sector

Author:
Plator Avdiu and Shpat Balaj
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
This paper provides an overview of the current level of inclusion of non-majority communities in KP and the KSF. It analyzes the state of inclusion in these institutions and the measures taken to ensure consistency in the process. Moreover, particular focus is given to the recruitment process, the practices on this regard and the specific measures taken to bring communities closer to these institutions. In addition, the paper offers an overview of the functioning of existing internal mechanisms that oversee and contribute to the development of inclusive policies. Among other, the paper focuses on the integrity of non-majority members, especially in the KP and the challenges posed in ensuring integrity.
Topic:
Security, Minorities, Institutions, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Serbia

26. Legitimising external missions: Deconstructing citizens' perceptions towards EULEX in Kosovo

Author:
Emma-Louise Rose
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
On the EU’s part, EULEX has been its largest ever civilian mission in an attempt to strengthen what is considered to be the EU’s weakest spot: foreign and security policy. Despite its lengthy presence, EULEX has not gained the trust of the citizens of Kosovo. The Kosovo Security Barometer (KSB) conducted annually by KCSS has been measuring the amount of trust that Kosovo citizens have in the mission and have found the number to be consistently low when compared to other local and international institutions. The lack of trust, and therefore support, from the public seems to stem from many different areas particularly EU/EULEX’s neutrality on the issue of Kosovo independence (due to lack of recognition by 5 member states) and a failure to carry out its mission. Based on the quantitative measurement of KSB, the lack of trust has remained fairly stable over the years, with all of the given statistics being within 15% of each other (between 16% and 31%), the lowest amount of trust was recorded in 2015. This brought the legitimacy and public support for the mission into question.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, European Union, Institutions, and EULEX
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

27. Kosova Resilience Index - Violent extemism in Kosova: What community resilience can teach us?

Author:
Skender Perteshi
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
To measure the community resilience towards extremism and radicalization, three indicators have been treated, namely: identity and social cohesion, connection with the country, and trust in state institutions and religious harmony between communities in the country. By evaluating these indicators, we have identified the strong points of community resilience in Kosova, which should be worked on in order to create communities which are resilient against violence and radicalization.
Topic:
Violent Extremism, Radicalization, Social Cohesion, Resilience, and Community
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

28. Challenges of Public Safety in Kosovo - Special Edition of Kosovo Security Barometer

Author:
Donika Marku
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
Various elements affect citizens’ perceptions regarding public safety. Indisputably, such attitudes are shaped by personal experiences. However, the importance of media and social networks in shaping citizens’ opinions cannot be ignored. Perceptions might be correlated with personal characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, education and economic status. Therefore, beyond general data analyses, this edition also includes cross-analyses of various public security threats with personal characteristics.
Topic:
Security, Public Opinion, and Public Safety
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

29. Kosovo Security Barometer - Tenth Edition

Author:
Shpat Balaj
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
The tenth edition of the Kosovo Security Barometer, respectively the first edition of the Western Balkans Security Barometer, consists of three main chapters: 1. Citizens’ trust towards Security, Justice and Central Institutions; 2. Citizens’ perceptions on the corruption of the key institutions; 3. Frequency of citizens’ contact with key security and justice institutions. While this report provides a general overview of citizens' perceptions on the above-mentioned chapters, it also presents the data based on Gender, Region, Area (Urban/Rural), Age (18-35/36+) and Ethnicity of the respondents. In addition, the report offers additional analysis on why such citizens’ perception towards the issues provided in the report are present. This was enabled by conducting two focus groups with field researchers - who provided first-hand information from the field in addition to the fixed responses of the citizens’ and two focus groups with representatives of institutions and other stakeholders that are subject of KSB analysis - who provided their perspective on why such perceptions are present and offered potential solutions on how to further the citizens' perception towards them.
Topic:
Security, Public Opinion, Institutions, Survey, and Trust
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo

30. State of play of integrity policies in the Kosovo Police

Author:
Plator Avdiu and Shpat Balaj
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)
Abstract:
In recent years, Kosovo’s security sector integrity practices, in particular Kosovo Police ones, have run into severe challenges, which have been exacerbated by the current Covid-19 pandemic the country is dealing with. Numerous police officers are subjected to criminal investigations by relevant rule-of-law mechanisms (Police Inspectorate of Kosovo and State Prosecution) for alleged criminal offenses related to breaches of legal procedures governing their official duties. On the other hand, the Prime Minister’s decision of October 2020 to discharge the former General Director of the Kosovo Police, has both directly and indirectly paved the way for political influence over the Kosovo Police by ruling parties. Furthermore, this may have a significant impact on discouraging structural reforms in the police, particularly in human resource management.
Topic:
Security, Corruption, Law Enforcement, and Police
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Kosovo