Combating a Shared Menace: Terrorism as a Security and Social Threat in the Western Balkans and Beyond

Abstract

The joint threats of religious radicalism, foreign fighter recruitments, and terrorism have dominated the Western security agenda for decades. But recently, the transatlantic community has begun to view even its southern European neighbors with growing suspicion. Since the beginning of the Syrian war, the Balkans has increasingly come under media and political attack for breeding and exporting Islamist foreign fighters across the Middle East and Europe. This article analyzes the historical trajectory of these concerns – focusing on the shift between the inflows of Islamist foreign fighters into the Balkans in the 1990s to the growth of domestic radicalized communities in the past five years. The article argues that although the threat of terrorism is relatively small within overwhelmingly moderate and pro-Western Balkan communities, it poses several unique regional consequences. Moreover, I argue that the most optimal way to prevent the enlargement of this threat is for Western partners to treat Western Balkans nations as equal partner in security policy, fighting against the same shared threat of Islamist terrorism. The West and domestic elites must also eschew the vilification of moderate Muslim communities and learn to separate true threats of terrorism from sensationalist commentaries that enflame ethnic and nationalist agendas.