The report explores the concepts of national interests and national security, which the West-Balkan nations adopted in the first decade of this century, as well as the approach the regional countries and their political class have taken towards the real and hypothetical risks, threats and challenges. The authors analyze the potential of instability, the common concerns and the differences in assessments of the situation and problem solution techniques in Western Balkans, NATO, the EU, and Russia, the approach to the European and Euroatlantic integration the West- Balkan states have developed, the prospects for implementing it, and the ways and forms of restoring inter-regional cooperation and good-neighborly relations.
This report has been drafted in the framework of the Euroatlantic Security Initiative (EASI) project launched by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and implemented by a group of distinguished politicians and experts from Russia, the U.S. and Europe for the purposes of drafting proposals on a new security structure in the Euroatlantic space. IMEMO RAN is the main project partner in Russia. All the participants in the project view the solution to the current problems in the context of common threats rather than through the prism of relations between Russia and the West. An approach of this kind makes it possible to more effectively promulgate the Russian vision of common European security. The EASI project and Russia's active engagement in it have been recognized as expedient by the President and the Ministry Foreign Affairs.