0.00 €
The research was conducted in three Serbian cities with large PRC investments -Smederevo, Bor and Zrenjanin - to establish the impact of these projects on local communities and how they affect human security, understood in terms of human rights and human dignity. In that regard, several forms of human security endangerment were observed in the course of the research project:• Environmental hazards: Since the arrival of the PRC investments, cities of Bor and Smederevo have recorded a major surge in the emission of various harmful particles. Environmentalists have so far filed several criminal charges against Chinese companies for air pollution, including pollution of the river Mali Pek. The future will bring further environmental challenges for the inhabitants of Zrenjanin, as the Linglong tyre factory could endanger the nature reserve Carska Bara as well as the food production in Vojvodina.• Public health: Serbia is a country with the highest rate of pollution-related deaths in Europe. Cities of Bor and Smederevo have experienced a rise in the rates of cancer and various other respiratory and heart diseases connected with industrial pollution.• Socio-economic and human rights: A feature of Chinese projects is the influx of labor from Asia to Serbia. A whole range of exploitative practices against foreign and domestic workers has been recorded in all PRC projects, including human trafficking of Vietnamese workers for the purpose of labor exploitation. Despite public pressure, the Serbian authorities are ready to tolerate violations of labor and human rights in order to maintain foreign direct investments, employment and political rating.• Rule of law: PRC projects are often declared as those of ‘national interest’ and are characterised by the lack of transparency and public scrutiny. PRC investors enjoy privileged treatment by local authorities and administration that adjust the legal framework and make numerous concessions at the expense of citizens and local communities.• Cross-cultural issues: The fact that Chinese workers are not trying to integrate and interact more profoundly with the local communities remains a big problem. In the absence of interpersonal communication and intercultural exchange, inter-ethnic and sexual assault-related incidents have also been recorded in some cases.• Surveillance: Chinese cameras equipped with face recognition technology have not been utilised in these cities to date, but local population fears that cutting-edge technology could be used as the PRC presence grows
More...
In Serbian media peacekeeping missions and military exercises are mainly referred to in the context of Kosovo. Multinational operations are overwhelmingly brought up in positive context. Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) is mostly touched upon in positive tone, but the reports are generally very polarized and the number of neutral texts is rather small. Overall, military exercises are the most frequently mentioned topic. However, in the reports on military exercises, Russia is never referred to in a negative tone. On the other hand, NATO is primarily mentioned in a neutral or a negative tone. This analysis focuses on media reporting regarding selected keywords, namely military exercises, peacekeeping missions, multinational operations and IPAP. These keywords were selected because they receive considerable attention in the media, but there is often a mix of true and false information in reports on them. The analysis covered 383 media pieces published between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. Media sources included online portals, printed newspapers, TV and radio. The goal was to determine how often and in what context these subjects are mentioned in the media, which media sources report on them the most and whether they are brought up in positive, neutral or negative tone. We also measured how often key international actors, namely NATO, Russia and the EU are referred to. Furthermore, the tone towards NATO and Russia was analyzed in media pieces regarding military exercises and IPAP respectively.
More...
The public opinion poll conducted by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) in October 2020 shows that the society is divided, both when it comes to measures taken in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and regarding the reaction of the competent institutions to the health crisis. Although no less than a third of the Serbian citizens do not believe in or have serious doubts about the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic,1the vast majority of them are of the opinion that the health crisis will have serious economic consequences, while a third are convinced that it has affected the level of democracy in Serbia. Most people see the pandemic as a threat to human and national security, but they are divided over how this crisis has affected their everyday lives. Polarisation was identified in relation to the level of trust in state institutions. Citizens trust the health care system the most, which is not surprising since the health care system commonly occupies a very high position in general surveys conducted to measure trust in all institutions. The reason for the high level of trust in the health system is the fact that it is the entire health system – not just the specialised COVID departments – that is bearing the brunt of the pandemic. As for other institutions, the percentage of trust in the President of the Republic and the Crisis Task Force for the Protection of the Population from the Infectious Disease COVID-19 stands at almost fifty-fifty, which again reflects the broader picture of citizens’ (dis)trust in these permanent and temporary institutions. One of the reasons for the division in the perception of disease as a threat to the personal safety of citizens is poor informing and reporting on the course and consequences of the pandemic (frequent contradictory messages provided by the Crisis Task Force and the authorities), which has been identified in the survey as one of the biggest problems of pandemic management. An enormous number of citizens perceive China as the largest financial and humanitarian donor during the period of the pandemic, which also influences - in the general survey - positive opinions about foreign countries, where China ranks first. Despite the fact that it was in fact the European Union that helped Serbia the most in the fight against the Coronavirus, in both financial and humanitarian terms, in the eyes of the citizens China still convincingly holds the first place.
More...
2020 has been marked by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted all aspects of life, from our daily routines to international politics. The pandemic has also had an effect on Belgrade-Prishtina relations, serving as a pretext for the fall of the Kosovo Government led by Albin Kurti at the end of March 2020. One of the first moves by the new Government of Kosovo, headed by Avdulah Hoti, was to withdraw the measures of so-called reciprocity with Serbia, introduced by their predecessors. This meant the removal of the formal barrier to the continuation of the dialogue with Serbia, which had been deadlocked since the end of 2018. The dialogue indeed revived – on multiple tracks. Presidents Vučić and Thaçi were invited to a White House meeting on June 27, which was followed by speculation that the meeting would result in Serbia recognizing Kosovo’s independence. However, the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers filed an indictment against Thaçi, charging him with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Kosovo war, and the White House meeting was cancelled. On the other hand, the Brussels Dialogue between Belgrade and Prishtina resumed shortly afterwards, at both the high political level and the so-called expert level. A number of meetings took place from July to September in which a range of issues were discussed, including economic cooperation, missing and displaced persons, the status of minority communities and mutual financial claims between Kosovo and Serbia. The postponed White House meeting eventually took place on September 3 and 4.The documents signed in Washington were described as “historic”, primarily by Trump’s administration, but also by President Vučić and the media under his control. However, the content of the documents suggests that we cannot talk about significant progress in the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Prishtina. Still, the intensified involvement of the United States in this process remains a fact and, against this background, four think tankers and journalists from Belgrade, Brussels, Prishtina and Washington will seek to discuss the following questions: How will the US presidential election scheduled for November 3 affect US involvement in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia? What resources does the EU have at its disposal to encourage the two sides to reach a comprehensive agreement? How will internal political change in Serbia and Kosovo – or the lack of it – affect the dialogue? How will the conflicting interests of the US, the EU, Russia and China affect the domestic political situation in Kosovo and Serbia, and consequently the normalization process? What is a feasible solution for future relations between Kosovo and Serbia?
More...
Hungary is currently Serbia’s closest international partner. Bilateral relations between the two countries are no longer marred by any disputes and their political and economic interests increasingly coincide. The values underpinning the administrations of both countries have converged to such an extent that a similar modus operandi is evident in their attitudes to issues such as democracy, the rule of law, institutions, foreign policy priorities, political opposition, the media, non-governmental organisations and the migrant crisis. According to the latest Freedom House report, these values and the political systems they have given rise to categorise these two countries as hybrid regimes – one step closer to authoritarian systems of government.
More...
A bad film might include such features as unconvincing actors, a predictable plot, forced lines, unnecessarily explicit love scenes and a nonsensical ending. In which case Serbia’s foreign policy during the state of emergency, declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, looks like a multiple winner of the Golden Raspberry award. Maladjusted to the new circumstances, she remained silent when she should have spoken out, spoke the wrong lines at the wrong moments, stammered and overacted only to come to the expected unhappy end – on bad terms with her most important international partners and in a firm embrace with those who are unpredictable.
More...
Serbia and the United States have had intensive cooperation in the field of security and defense for years, members of the armed forces have participated in over 70 military exercises in the last ten years, and the United States is one of the largest donors to the Serbian defense system. However, if we follow only media reports in Serbia, the intensity of this cooperation will not be so obvious. Defense cooperation with Russia gets far more space in the media than activities with the US and NATO members. Thus, for example, the military exercise “Slavic Shield” completely occupied the public’s attention before and after its organisation in October 2019. Although undeniably a significant activity between the two armed forces, to which Russia brought its S-400 and Pantsir systems, it gained a disproportionately large space in the media compared to other exercises that took place that year with other partner countries. Apart from the image being sent to the public through media and various foreign policy moves, a very dynamic and practical defense cooperation with all partners takes place behind the scenes. The United States is one of Serbia’s important partners in the field of defense, and cooperation with the US Department of Defense has been achieved in various fields. Every year, Serbia and the US conduct about 100 different bilateral activities. In the eyes of the Serbian public, perception of relations with the United States, and especially perception of military cooperation, is burdened by the NATO intervention in 1999. In order to avoid losing political points at home and endangering relations with Russia, the political elite in Serbia avoids talking about cooperation with the United States and other NATO members, and the pro-regime media report accordingly. Regardless of the fact that military cooperation is often used as a foreign or domestic policy tool, it is important to discuss the practical aspects of this cooperation, benefits for Serbia and the US, their defense systems, but also the citizens. At the online discussion “Serbia and the USA: Together we are safer”, specific examples of military cooperation between Serbia and the US and practical benefits for our defense system and its members from this cooperation were discussed. Defense cooperation between Serbia and the United States takes place on several levels, through joint exercises, cooperation with the Ohio National Guard, a student exchange program, as well as donations.
More...
