Blv. Zhanë D’Ark, Nr. 16, Tiranë Tel/Fax: + 355 4 2 225 225

On February 25-26, 2015, the Atlantic Council of Albania, supported by the NATO PDD organized its18^th Annual International Conference titled: ‘NATO in face of the recent Euro-Atlantic Security Challenges’. This conference successfully served as a long-established opportunity for civil society and political actors to make significant contributions to encouraging cooperation for security and development in the Europe and Western Balkans and discuss NATO approaches to the current security challenges. The conference had representatives from the region and beyond. Held at Hotel Mondial in Tirana on 26^th February 2015, was attended by over 150 participants, including government representatives, political leaders, diplomats, security and defense experts, military officers, university professors, researchers, civil society representatives, media people, ACA members and students. The conference featured four sessions of high-level speakers and followed by questions, debate and good discussions.

As usual the 18^thAnnual International Conference of the Atlantic Council of Albania was opened by its president, Dr. Arian Starova who, in his welcome speech, also referred to the conference theme in general by highlighting the importance of creating a platform for dialogue to discuss the recent developments in international security in Europe and beyond it, in the Middle East and North Africa, assuring that “a greater support to our Atlantic Council in the future would undisputedly produce more ideas and useful activities for our national, regional and international security”. He focused in some traits of the current security challenges in Europe and Middle East. In the follow, when tackling some ideas about the Ukraine crises and its causes he said among other things that this crisis “constitutes a very serious security challenge which is progressively narrowing the space of dialogue. However, there are still possibilities and time in order to prevent what might be the worse in the covering distance from the dialogue to the containing actions to this policy of Russia. In the long run, even this very policy of Russia can only be temporary from all the possible viewpoints. On the other side, this political behavior of Russia in the international relations is being pursued at the high expense of the standard of life of the Russian population, while President Putin seems to be unconsciously repeating the old mistake of its communist predecessors who cherished to make Russia a superpower by increasing the military power alone and by neglecting the wellbeing of its citizens”. In the end, he said that, in the face of the resent security threats, it is very important to do more for the increase of the defense budget.

In the opening keynote addresses, Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Luciolli, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association called for better cooperation between NATO and EU in the framework of United Nations and highlighted the importance of using all our resources, military and non-military alike in face of the changing nature of threats and our new understandings of the defence dimensions. He addressed the concerns regarding declining defense budgets in the EU and the imperatives of developing the right capabilities for defence and the need for readiness in order to strengthen the transatlantic links and face a possible Russian aggression. In his remarks regarding Article 10 and the Enlargement Process, Prof. Dr. Luciolli referred to integration of the Balkan states in NATO and the importance of this process for maintaining peace in the region.

and the speakers were Mr. Sokol Dervishaj, former Deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Dr. Enver Bytyçi, Director of the Institute for South East Europe Studies, Mr. Albert Musliu, member of the Presidency of the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia and Dr. Arian Dyrmishi, researcher of the institute for democracy and Mediation. This session was quite interesting by bringing diverse views. It was developed in the spirit of a Western Balkan according to the western democratic vision of building a multi-ethnic Balkan society integrated in NATO and EU. The panel emphasized unanimously the need for more cooperation in the region and a break off from the old nationalist mentality in order for the states in the Western Balkan to be able to advance their political agenda and benefit from the new global dimensions. Special importance was given to raising awareness and introducing a new understanding of foreign policy, different from that of old nationalism to new generations and marginalisation of extreme nationalism in the future. Mr. Dervishaj emphasized during the debate that almost all revival of nationalist activities emerge because of some kind of political support, but also because of the peoples’ economic difficulties. The discussion also addressed the danger coming from nationalism, especially when manifested as part of official state ideology. Some important remarks were made regarding nationalism used as a strategic tool from political leaders and parties to exercise control over various political and ethnic communities. The speakers drew attention to the negative impact of ethnic nationalism in Macedonia promoted from the governing party on the relations between Albanian and Macedonian ethnic communities as well as the country’s bilateral relations with Greece and Bulgaria. The discussion also explored the issues regarding the rise of nationalist parties in Europe, such as Golden Dawn in Greece, Attack in Bulgaria, Red and Black Alliance in Albania etc. Other two causes were also identified as contributing factors to the rise of nationalism in Balkan, namely, the lack of democratic institutions that aggravated further by the 2008 Economic Crisis and a general understanding of regional cooperation solely in terms of EU Integration and not as a means to solving the regional disputes. Dr Dyrmishi stressed that the Balkan cooperation is still an unfinished business as more and more we witness the use of nationalist rhetoric during the electoral campaigns. He also said that the Balkan cooperation is still superficial and there is a revival of nationalism in the Balkans.

According to Mr. Ahmed Hassan Abdellah, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Arab republic of Egypt in Tirana some of the main contributing factors in creating security threats are as following: the continuous occupation of Arab territories and the Palestine issue, interference of foreign states in the politics and decision-making in Middle East and North Africa, aggravated social and economic condition in the region, high levels of unemployment among youth, etc. He made a brief description of the relations of NATO and Egypt by stressing their further development in the future. The Egypt’s Ambassador clearly declared that ISIS terrorists have nothing to do with the real Islam. The discussion also had a special focus on the situation in Libya. Mr. Essam F. Ben Galiel, Chargé d’Affairs, Embassy of Libya in Tirana made a specific appeal to Europe and international community to provide stability after the intervention and to help Libya establish rule of law. Addressing the hopes of Libyan people for freedom and democracy, Mr. Galiel opposed military intervention, claiming that it will further deepen the crisis. “Libya rejects foreign military interventions, especially when offering support to one side rather than another”, he said. In the end, he expressed the hope of reaching a peace agreement by the end of this year. Prof. Dr. Çinar said among other thing that one of the root causes of the religious radicalization is the fact that the state controls the religious education as well as the existing gap between theoretical Islam and practical Islam. Authoritarian regimes are also a cause root for radicalizations in general. NGO-s to be allowed by law would contyribute very much to the appeasement of the radicalization activities, he said. Considering what is happening in the Middle East, former Ambassador Tomçini said that “we are witnessing the replacement of the Arab Spring by the Arab winter” meaning some kind of a jungle war there. He warned that unless stronger measures are taken, the “berber peoples” might upsurge in North Africa too.

action Plan (RAP) that provides a series of measures that address the new security challenges within the NATO boundaries as well as through NATO Response Force (NRF) and, second, the importance of increasing defence budget of the member states to the target of two percent of the GDP. Both the issues were discussed in the context of the Western Balkan and available possibilities for increasing the combined efforts for security among states in this region. It was pointed out that building interactive capacities among the states of the Western Balkan would be a highly efficient way of reducing security costs and increasing interaction, thanks to the similarities in the defence capacities of these states and their geographical proximity. Therefore, promoting a more cooperative and interactive Western Balkan was considered to be a crucial component in implementing the decisions made in the Wales Summit. Dr. Lasconjarias gave a special importance to the “collective defense” of NATO as a key to the Euro-Atlantic security. He also stressed that however important NATO’s RAP and NRF are “they can’t be made without money”. Mr Kulluri paid very much attention to the specific contribution the Balkkan countries could offer to NATO.

At the end of the conference, a team of 3 members from the YATA Albania interviewed 54 participants in order to evaluate performance of the conference. In conclusion: 10% of the participants assessed the overall performance of the event as Excellent, 60% as Very Good and 30% as good.

Regarding the satisfaction in terms of: overall organisation, quality of speakers, quality of the discussions, level of content, learning opportunities, available information sources, 80% of the participants evaluated it as Very Good and 20% of participants as Good.

When asked whether the conference fulfilled their reason for attending, all the participants responded ‘Yes, Absolutely’.

The survey findings suggested that the conference was helpful in enhancing the knowledge of participants, particularly on the topics of Partnership, Russia, Risks coming from extreme nationalism in the region, importance of the NATO’s Wales Summit for the Western Balkans etc. The conference had little or no impact on the participants’ perception of NATO.

The information and analysis obtained through this conference will be very significant for the work of the ACA in the future and we believe that this information can be very valuable for policymakers in Albania and the region. 50% of the participants believe that more online interaction, particularly on the social media would have been helpful for the conference.