Authoritarianism as a Cause of War and a Duty to Resist
A new regional conference, The Belgrade Security Conference (BSC) is scheduled for 27 and 28 October 2022 in Belgrade, under the auspices of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) with the title Authoritarianism as a Cause of War and a Duty to Resist.
War in Europe, geopolitical competition, the rise of autocracy, the normalisation of the nuclear threat, relativisation of value-based conventions, fear of new pandemics, fake news, disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories, food shortage, and lack of energy supplies is the reality of the world in which we live today. Serbia and the Western Balkan region have experienced a dramatic decline in democratic standards over the past decade. Attacks on activists, human rights defenders, and whistleblowers have become almost everyday life in our countries, where the power of governments grows almost to unlimited proportions. If this is our present, what will be our future? Do we have the potential to curb global challenges, and who will lead the change? We can ask these kinds of questions indefinitely, anxiously searching for a magic wand or at least a lifeboat. Pressed by the urgency of the moment, we risk getting things wrong and going deeper into the uncertainty. That is why debates and dialogue, confrontation of thoughts, and bursting the established bubbles are necessary.
What the world will be like after the reset of the global security architecture depends on finding ideas that new generations will inherit. Will Europe compromise the comfort of its soft power, and will it take geopolitical responsibility? Has the EU enlargement fatigue turned into sclerosis, and will the Western Balkans become an integrated region of Europe or an erosive area of instability, with negative spillover effects elsewhere on our continent?
These are the questions we want to ask European and Balkan leaders, global think-tankers, academics, activists, diplomats, and current and former politicians at the first edition of the BSC. Russian aggression on Ukraine, the future of the EU, the fight for democracy, energy dependency, the growth of organised crime, disinformation, malign influences, and the future of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans are some of the topics we will discuss while stimulating the opposition of arguments that would paint a picture of the new peaceful world. Furthermore, our academic event will continue gathering scholars with cutting-edge research and fresh ideas on the most relevant issues. This year, we will focus on the nexus between sustainable development and security.
The BSC is a continuation of the Belgrade Security Forum – the most significant Western Balkan conference on foreign policy and security we have co-organized for 11 consecutive years. In order to seek answers to the challenging present and try to foresee the uncertain future, we are building the BSC as a contemporary discussion platform and environment for more stimulating, engaging, dynamic, and sincere dialogue.