Study: Foreign Authoritarian Influence in the Western Balkans
The study is the result of the project “Understanding and Responding to the Influence of Foreign Actors”, which aims to understand the nature and quantify the degree of authoritarian influence in the Western Balkans, starting with three countries: Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The implementers of this project, in addition to the BiH Foreign Policy Initiative, are: Political Capital Budapest, Hungary; Societas Civilis Institute for Democracy Skopje, Northern Macedonia; Center for Democratic Transition Podgorica, Montenegro, with donor support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
So far, significant knowledge is available on how Russia is trying to establish European and American political processes, but the influence of Russia and other superpowers (e.g., Turkey, Iran, China) in the Western Balkans is less known and less brought to the spotlight. The aim of the project is to provide a better understanding, raise awareness and respond to the influence of foreign actors in Eastern and Central Europe. This project aims to create tools that will allow detailed measurement of the influence of actors such as the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and other authoritarian regimes.
Download the study here. (Available only in English)
Authors: Anida Šabanović, Mahir Sijamija, Haris Ćutahija, Milena Gvozdenović, Marko Pankovski, Dorka Takácsy, Dominik Istrate, Veronika Víchová.
