The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) will host a side event on the margins of the Belgrade Security Conference (BSC) dubbed Revisiting Human Security in Southeast Europe and the Role of Regional Cooperation. This session will examine the unique challenges to human security across Southeast Europe (SEE), especially in the wake of recent global and regional crises. Human security, encompassing protection from fear, indignity, and want, has been severely impacted by the pandemic and ongoing conflicts worldwide. With the SEE 2030 Strategy as a guiding framework, this event aims to discuss how regional cooperation can enhance resilience and bolster human security for SEE citizens. The session will focus on two pressing questions: whether recent conflicts have shifted attention from human security to traditional national security, and how collaboration across SEE can effectively address these complex security challenges.

This session will bring together a distinguished panel moderated by journalist Tim Judah, featuring RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu, Dr. Samir Huseinbasic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Konstantinos Androulakis from the Greek Embassy in Belgrade, and Prof. Dr. Guven Sak of the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey. Each speaker will provide unique insights on the roles of policy, economics, and diplomacy in strengthening human security through collaborative efforts. The event will highlight the RCC’s mandate to implement SEE 2030’s objectives, emphasizing the need for solidarity and collective action to counteract the region’s multi-layered security risks and ensure sustained human development across SEE.