The future is digital and it is of great importance for the public institutions, governments, ministries, embassies to get on board and embrace the potentials of the new technologies. Unlike the traditional diplomacy, digital diplomacy allows anyone, everyone, anywhere, anytime to have a voice. Individuals are no longer just passive receivers of information, they can respond, influence and contribute. This is the way to engage the public in the broadest sense into the decision-making processes, but also to engage into a multi-channel communication flow.
In order to build the knowledge base in the field of digital diplomacy in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, Centre for European Perspective is working together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the United States Department of State. New development cooperation project »Enhancing Digital Diplomacy Activities in the Western Balkan and Eastern European Countries” is kicking-off next week, addressing and bringing together the public institutions PR and digital services.
An advanced public relations training, focused on digital diplomacy, taking place in Bled, Slovenia, from 28 to 30 November 2017, will offer in-depth knowledge about the importance of the digital presence, European digital media landscape, audience identification, story-telling, ecosystem and strategy creation, digital campaigns, visual contents and digital media (such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube).
Over 70 participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovenia will get a chance to work with the digital engagement experts from the U.S. Department of State, academic or private sector as well as experts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia. The programme aims to strengthen the capacities of the public institutions to plan, coordinate and prepare digital campaigns through various digital communication tools.
The project is part of the CEP program activities financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the scope of international development cooperation, this time in cooperation with the US Department of State.
A round table discussion “The Evolving and Ever-present Cyber Security” attracted a large crowd of participants from various fields interested in cyber security, ranging from academics, IT specialists, companies to embassy and ministry representatives, who discussed the evolving challenges on Friday, 17 November, in Ljubljana. The event was organized in the framework of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Centre for European Perspective and Club Alpbach Senza Confini.
The event was open by Meliha Muherina, Project Manager at CEP, who briefly introduced the idea and organizers behind the event. The opening remarks were delivered by Miriam Možgan, cyber security coordinator at the Slovenian ministry of foreign affairs, who presented the recent engagements of Slovenia in its foreign policy in relation to the topic of cyber security; Domen Božeglav, adviser for digitalization in the office of the Slovenian minister of public administration, who continued with the internal aspect of Slovenian preparations and reactions to the cyber security developments; and Vesna Kuralt, president of Club Alpbach Senza Confini, who presented Forum Alpbach Network, its work and future plans for cooperation.
The panelists, Daniel Cohen, Head of the Strategy program at the Institute for International Diplomacy and a researcher at Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Institute, Dobran Božič, Director of the Government Office for the Protection of Classified Information, Gorazd Božič, Slovenian Computer Emergency Response Team, and Peter Geršak, International Business Machines Corporation, Slovenia, addressed various aspects of cyber security, starting with the question of the ownership of the infrastructure relevant to the cyber space. The dilemma of the agreement between the society, state and private companies on the ownership and regulation of the cyber space was discussed as one of the crucial questions in the times when the public demands protection from the state, emphasized Dobran Božič.
In contrast to the past perception of cyber-attacks as something that is in the domain of young hackers from the science fiction movies and books, the issue is considered as an act of organized crime today. The trends show that they are usually motivated by financial profits, said Gorazd Božič. Peter Geršak approached the discussion from the perspective of businesses, exposing the challenges of the protection of the devices that the employees use, lack of skills of employees in this field and the provision of advising services for the mitigation of the effects of cyber threats on businesses.
While a number of potential scenarios was discussed as the emerging trends in cyber-attacks, the worst-case scenarios would involve an attack on critical infrastructure, including energy sector, telecommunications and banking. Dobran Božič explained Slovenia’s and wider European preparations for such cases, also in the light of the recent EU Directive on Security of Network and Information System. Gorazd Božič exposed a number of already functioning response systems and expressed his positive view on the existing capabilities.
Daniel Cohen, specializing in cyber terrorism, elaborated on the challenges of the web and social media use in terrorist recruitment, especially in the case of ISIS, discussed fake news, elections meddling and information leaks, but also touched upon the rather unproductive cooperation between the public institutions and the private enterprises.
Internet of Things (IoT) was approached from the perspective of privacy protection of the citizens and the evolving public perception of private data sharing with the private corporations such as big international corporations and with the state, who on the other hand is expected to protect the citizens in case of a security breach. The round table discussion, moderated by Sabina Carli of CEP, also engaged into a vivid exchange of views relating to the challenges that are brought to both software developers and the authorities when it comes to encrypted communications, crypto, blockchain, internet voting and artificial intelligence.
Danube University Krems and the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe are hosting a conference “The EUSDR – Common Approach, Shared Competences” addressing the challenges for policies, economics, science, culture and education in the Danube Region.
European as well as international developments reveal numerous challenges for the EU Strategy for the Dabube Region (EUSDR) and the EU itself. Participants discussed the role of the institutions at local, regional, national and global levels implementing the EUSDR’s objectives, prerequisites for a stronger European idea in the Danube Region and throughout Europe, against growing right-wing populisms, extremisms and radicalization processes, and potentials for creations of new perspectives for the Danube Region.
CEP’s executive director Dr Gorazd Justinek spoke at the panel discussion “Necessary Concepts, Planning Horizons and Perspectives for a European Togetherness” together with Dr Mathias Czaika, Professor for Migration and Integration at the Danube University Krems, Mag Elisabeth Pacher, Consultant for European and International Culture Policy at the Federal Chancellery of Austria, Gyula Ribàr, Senior Expert Associate for EU Funds, Foundation Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture and Maria Schwarzmayr, Art Initiative „Divided Cities”. The panel was moderated by Mag Adelheid Wölfl, Correspondent South-Eastern Europe for Der Standard. Dr Justinek addressed the changing nature of the European integration project, touched upon the enlargement process and discussed the numerous crises the EU is facing today, but also the benefits the integration brings to the European population.
In the framework of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference, Centre for European Perspective fosters a partnership with UCLA and its Center for Middle East Development, that recently organized the 12th Annual Conference, Enriching the Middle East’s Economic Future, in Doha, Qatar. The annual conference, held under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry of the State of Qatar, is an internationally recognized forum for government officials, active business and financial practitioners, and politicians and academics dealing with current economic, financial, political, and diplomatic issues.
CEP’s executive director dr. Gorazd Justinek actively participated in the panel discussion entitled “New U.S.-European Relations: What Does it Mean for the MENA Region?”, moderated by dr. Ersin Kalaycioglu of Sabanci University. The panellists Mr Torgeir E. Fjaertoft of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Ms Robin Wright of the US Institute of Peace/ Woodrow Wilson Center and Dr Gorazd Justinek of CEP, exchanged their views on the Translatlantic relations and their implications in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Centre for European Perspective was present at the Zagreb Youth Summit, which took place between 6 and 9 November at the Mimara museum in Zagreb. The Summit was organised by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. In 2009, the first summit was held in Belgrade, followed by summits in Prishtina and Sarajevo in 2012 and 2015.
This year, the summit brought together 250 socially and politically active young individuals, who, in 13 panels, discussed current challenges that pose significant threats to the stability and advancement of democracy. The rise of of liberal autocracies, illiberal democracies and its consequences, populism, nationalism, the role of the youth and the millennial generation, were the main topics of the Summit.
Participants agreed that misuse of electoral processes and other democratic mechanisms resulted in decline of media and other freedoms, de-legitimisation of political opposition and civil society. They were united on common position that democracy, as a universal value, has to be defended and advanced universally.
Between 9–10 November 2017, CEP hosts a regional strategic policy meeting to outline the priorities against Serious and Organized Crime in the Western Balkans. The outlined priorites will provide basis to plan the second pillar of the “Integrative Internal Security Governance”, where the PCC SEE Secretariat has been granted the role of Lead Partner and is in charge of coordination.
The IISG (Integrative Internal Security Governance) is a new approach to internal security governance capacity-building and reform introduced in the Western Balkan region. It is hosted by DCAF Ljubljana as of 8 September 2017. Criminal police and Ministry officials from Western Balkan beneficiaries and PCC SEE Contracting Parties, Europol, UNODC and other major international partners in this field prepared the policy basis to continue drafting the first multi-annual Integrated Plan of Action (iPA) of the 2nd IISG Pillar – the “Western Balkan Counter-Serious Crime Initiative – WBCSCi”.
The iPA will enable the WB Beneficiaries, the EU and the international community (donors of external assistance) to address the challenges of Serious and Organized Crime in the period 2018-2020 in coordinated manner and in line with the principle of regional ownership as provided by the IISG policy framework. The event, hosted by the CEP Slovenia, was supported by the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the PCC SEE Secretariat.
