Civil society’s role in advancing human security: European Union policies in the Western Balkans

The article argues that framing the EU policy in the Western Balkans in human security terms could help overcome failures of its past attempts to achieve sustainable security in the region. It first discusses the value added of a human security approach to existing EU state and non-state initiatives, and analyses the difficulties in implementing a human security policy in the Western Balkans. It goes on to show how and why state weakness has become a root cause of human insecurity in the Western Balkans, which makes the EU’s overwhelmingly statecentred initiatives inapt in providing the security of individuals and communities. Through an elaboration of three key principles of the Human Security Doctrine for Europe, i.e. the ‘bottom-up’ approach, legitimate political authority and a regional focus, the paper argues there is a crucial role that the civil society can and should play in mitigating the risks to human security in the Western Balkans.