CSR organized the workshop “The dangers of propaganda and disinformation in today’s world”CSR organized the workshop “The dangers of propaganda and disinformation in today’s world”



Today we held the workshop titled “The dangers of propaganda and disinformation in today’s world”. The event was organized in cooperation with the Sweden Alumni Network Western Balkans, and supported by the Swedish Institute.

The workshop brought together a significant number of participants, who took active part in the discussion, and who were representatives of foreign diplomatic missions, international organizations, other NGO’s, media, academia and representatives from other Swedish Alumni Networks, which gave the workshop an international signature.

At long last NATO has spotted ChinaAt long last NATO has spotted China



By Aleksandar Nacev, Executive Director of the Center for Security Research

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Meeting of Heads of State and Government in London in December 2019, Alliance leaders asked the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to undertake a Forward-Looking Reflection Process to assess ways to strengthen the political dimension of the NATO Alliance. To this end, in April 2020, Secretary General Stoltenberg appointed an independent Reflection Group, and tasked the Group with providing recommendations in several areas that are crucial to NATO and its essence.

After extensive consultations within and outside NATO, including with scholars, leaders from business and the technology sector, parliamentarians, military officials, and government representatives from all thirty Allies, most NATO partner states, and numerous international Organizations, the Group presented its final report, titled NATO 2030: United for a new era, to the Secretary General.

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When an order endsWhen an order ends



By Alessandro Politi, Director of the NATO Defense College Foundation

This article intends to discuss three points: the quest for a new world order, echoing the one established in 1945, is pointless; what should be done when an existing order cannot be adapted, and how the transition to a different order should be presently governed, taking into account also the new US administration.

The solutions proposed are to: adopt a flexible globalisation model where shared responsibilities and decision-making are realistically rebalanced; to refuse a fragmenting multipolarism; to relaunch global sustainability by redressing social imbalances at home and abroad in order to tackle climate change and to phase out an outdated model of consumerist capitalism. The overarching global priorities are essentially two: ensuring human security vis-à-vis climate change (and attendant pandemics) and favouring shared prosperity, which means the transition to a fairer hybrid economic system where economic policies are fully accountable to the taxpayer.

Will the Biden presidency understand these two strategic priorities? In short, the answer is: in word yes, in deed yo, with a strong tendency towards a no. Political handicaps in Congress and American socio-cultural conditions may significantly limit the President’s concrete choices, reducing complex decisions to a zero-sum game with China and risking an economic stalemate that could turn into hot confrontation. (more…)

Online meeting with the “Kosovar Centre for Security Studies”Online meeting with the “Kosovar Centre for Security Studies”



As part of our strategy in building solid relations between the Center for Security Research in Skopje and leading international security research institutions, as well within the CSR framework for international cooperation, today we had a great kick-off meeting with the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), an independent policy research centre founded in April 2008 and based in Prishtina – Kosovo.

In the meeting with the Executive Director of KCSS, Mr. Mentor Vrajolli, we outlined the future scope of work and defined the common areas of cooperation between both organizations. The CSR aims to expand the understanding of international affairs, focusing on inter-relationship between security, conflict, and development, as well to assist governmental institutions in the region in understanding and dealing with modern security challenges through research and analysis.

America’s military still rules the worldAmerica’s military still rules the world



Aleksandar Nacev PhD

Battlefields are constantly evolving, and modern warfare is quickly advancing. In turn, this is causing countries around the world to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into their militaries in the constant race to develop the most advanced training, technology and weaponry. The permanent pressure to have the best armed forces in the world is usually connected to certain geopolitical and geostrategic goals, and military force or the projection of this force is a very important factor in achieving those goals.

But head-to-head comparisons of military strength between countries are extremely hard to come by — which is what makes the Global Firepower annual rankings so noteworthy. Their 2021 Military Strength Rankings draw on more than 55 factors to assign a Power Index score to 139 countries. The ranking assesses the diversity of each country’s weapons and pays particular attention to their available manpower. Geography, logistical capacity, available natural resources, and the size of defines budgets are also considered. The top power index score is 0.0000, which is “realistically unattainable,” according to Global Firepower. The closer a country is to this number, the more powerful its military is. But who are the top five militaries in the world? Let us take a quick glance over the list and the explanation behind the rankings.

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The cubs of the Caliphate: challenge vs threatThe cubs of the Caliphate: challenge vs threat



Rabie W. Sedrak

Introduction

The Cubs of the Caliphate are the children who were exploited by ISIS during the armed conflicts in its quasi-state within Iraq and Syria. Created to serve one purpose, which is to ensure the continuity of the Caliphate and to convey ISIS ideology and message to future generations all over the world. Even though the Islamic State was militarily defeated, the number of children indoctrinated by the Islamic State’s ideology is still increasing, and if not treated properly, those children will represent a threat to world peace and security.

Returning foreign terrorist fighters (RFTF) experience in Europe and particularly in Balkans is very unique since the involvement of adult fighters with ISIS was a voluntary-based involvement and not a recruitment-based one. Despite the global interest in fighting violent extremism in the past two decades, only few efforts focused on the deradicalization process itself. Ultimately, the available reintegration programs are likely to be inadequate for those children since they were originally developed to address adult soldiers and not minors.

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Workshop on „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“ organized by the CSRWorkshop on „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“ organized by the CSR



Within the CSR operational framework, taking into account the relevance of the topic related to foreign terrorist fighters and the process of reintegration of returnees, we considered it extremely important for this topic to develop a useful discussion between directly or indirectly affected individuals, institutions and organizations, during which opinions and best practices for dealing with this process will be exchanged. For that purpose, we organized the workshop titled „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“ on Feb 23, 2021, which was held in a combined (offline/online via ZOOM) format.

The main topic of the workshop was the threat posed and national experiences on the FTF returnees, and how several countries in Southeast Europe dealt with that issue.

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The CSR is organizing a workshop on „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“The CSR is organizing a workshop on „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“



Within the CSR operational framework, taking into account the relevance of the topic related to foreign terrorist fighters and the process of reintegration of returnees, we consider it extremely important for this topic to develop a useful discussion between directly or indirectly affected individuals, institutions and organizations, during which opinions and best practices for dealing with this process will be exchanged.

For that purpose, we will be organizing the workshop titled „Best practices and approaches in the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighter (FTF) returnees“ on Feb 23, 2021 06:00 PM, which will be held online via ZOOM.

The login details, the agenda and the speakers bio can be found in the event poster or in the following link:

Практики и искуства во реинтеграцијата на странски борци | Facebook

Guest appearance of the CBI Director on the morning program on TV AlfaGuest appearance of the CBI Director on the morning program on TV Alfa



The Director of the Center for Security Research, Aleksandar Nacev PhD, had a guest appearance in the morning program on TV Alfa, where he spoke about the latest world military rankings of „Global Firepower“, the latest developments in the domain of the national defense, and the scandal with the issuing of NATO security clearances.

You can watch the whole interview on the following link:

Guest appearance of the CBI Director on „Radio Lider“Guest appearance of the CBI Director on „Radio Lider“



The Director of the Center for Security Research, Aleksandar Nacev PhD, had a guest appearance in the morning program on “Radio Lider”, where he spoke about the latest developments of the Macedonian membership to NATO, the scandals with the security clearances, the situation in the Armed Forces, and the work of the Ministry of Interior.