Conflict In Former Yugoslavia Research Articles

Critique of Instrumentalist and Primordialist Theories

Beyond the mainstream conflict in former Yugoslavia, an incomplete research ‎exists on the micro-military ethnic alliances and micro-conflicts on the local‎ and regional levels particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article attempts ‎to fill this knowledge gap through the examination of the theoretical frameworks, ‎instrumentalism and primordialism as the two most frequently used ‎frameworks in explaining the Yugoslav disintegration. In terms of instrumentalism, ‎the article expands on the overreaching assumptions on the account of ‎elitist capacity to instrumentilize ethnic violence in multiethnic societies. Article ‎adds to the existing literature that instrumentalism can and often does ‎inadvertently neglect identifying instances where the elitist’s instrumentalisation ‎of the masses did not materialize. Conversely, primordialism an approach ‎that fell out of favor and an unfit framework in regards to Yugoslav dissolution,‎ was substantially and eagerly applied as an explanans, particularly in the first ‎stages of the war. In principle, the primordialism erroneously characterized the‎Yugoslav dissolution as the ancient ethnic grievances coming to the surface in ‎the absence of strong central government and the primordialist never bothered‎ to further that analysis. Hence, this article will go beyond the basic primordialist‎assumption, it confirms that primordialism, the genetically based‎ argument, cannot adequately tackle conflicts in multiethnic societies as seen ‎in Yugoslavia however, and omitted from the literature, the article posits that ‎the approach has an inexplicably staunch and protracting capacity to linger and ‎spread through the pores of society as a mechanism often utilized by nationalists ‎elites to manipulate and sustain their radical views. This capacity in principle‎ effectively protracts hostilities as attested in all former Yugoslav republics.‎

War Song in a Service of Ideology. Comparative Essay on the Example of Yugoslav and Ukrainian-Russian Conflicts

Both the official army music and combatants’ informal folk songs have always played a noteworthy role in their respective societies regardless whether this music was created as means of actual propaganda or subsequently as part of reinvented commemorative culture. This article focuses on comparison of the two most recent European armed conflicts, namely 1) the ethnically motivated conflicts in former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995/1999, and 2) the interethnic violence followed by Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014; the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has not yet been settled and still threatens to escalate. Building on wide range of primary and secondary sources (mainly of Western, Central and South-Eastern European provenience) that has been ignored by a regional scholarship, the paper seeks to provide a contextual background behind the war songs and to compare their prevalent patterns and typology of their inner dynamics and transformations. This paper will not inquire into international, economical or military implications of the aforementioned armed conflicts; it will focus specifically on textual and contextual analysis of those songs. Study brings completely new insights on phenomenon of war songs in East European and former Yugoslav environment and brings much-needed light on the intertwined social, cultural and identity relations that can be established between the former Yugoslav and post-Soviet countries. This topic is very important since state doctrine, national narratives, historical memory affect current and also future development of both regions what is clearly visible on elaborated material.

Slovakia as a Safe Country – The Perspective of the Slovak Community Members of Vojvodina

Abstract This article explores the current migration of the Slovak community members of Serbia to Slovakia, focusing on their perception of safety and risk, in the period since 1990 when the post-Communist transition began both in Serbia and Slovakia. The authors attempt to analyse how the members of the given community, who migrated to Slovakia during the reference period, perceive Slovakia today from the point of view of their safety, understood as the search for freedom from threats. They focus on individual safety factors (life, health, status, wealth and freedom). After 1990, Slovakia became not only a country left by migrants, but also a country of destination for migrants. One such migrant group is the members of Slovak communities abroad, in particular Serbia, Romania and Ukraine. The first wave of migration of Slovaks from Serbia took place in the early 1990s in connection with the violent ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia, and the next one as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, which intensified after 2015. The main push factors of the migration of Vojvodina Slovaks to Slovakia in the 1990s included attempts to avoid mobilisation and participation in combat operations; after 2008, the key role was played primarily by material issues which they perceived as an existential threat to themselves and to their families. The main pull factor in favour of choosing Slovakia comprise of the relatively small administrative barriers and linguistic proximity. While our interlocutors regarded their concerns about the impacts of the 1990s war conflicts as short-term threats, they perceived the social impacts of the economic transition and uncontrolled global financial crisis after 2008 as long-term or even permanent threats. In this context, they consider Slovakia a safe country. The article is based on extensive multi-sited fieldwork – in-depth interviews with the members of the community – and on other available sources (legal documents, statistical data, media, etc.).

What about men? Towards a critical interrogation of sexual violence against men in global politics

Abstract In recent years, debates around sexual violence against men (SVAM) started to gain momentum in policy and research. Yet, the conceptualization and empirical identification of SVAM became a matter of political contestation, with incidents often being depicted through de-sexualized labels such as ‘inhumane acts’ and ‘cruel treatment’. The fluidity of sexual meanings surrounding these episodes highlights the intricate relationship between ‘sex’ and ‘violence’: Do we always already know what sexual violence is? What does the language of sexual violence obscure, flatten and trivialize? This contribution draws on Marysia Zalewski's interventions to interrogate concepts and framings commonly used to ‘read’ episodes of sexual violence against men. In particular, it follows Zalewski and Runyan's efforts to ‘unthink’ what we ‘know’ and how we ‘know’ sexual violence against men in global politics, while interrogating the relationship between sex and violence in particular performances of bodily violence. The analysis draws on extensive archival research conducted in the files of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Surveyed documents include records and proceedings, such as trial transcripts and statements of victims and witnesses involved in incidents of violence against men during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia and Peru.

Représentation et valeur politique du conflit ethnique en ex-Yougoslavie dans Tactics Ogre : de Sarajevo à Baramus

Avec Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together sorti en 1995 sur la Super Famicom de Nintendo, Quest propose un jeu vidéo ambitieux sur le plan narratif, et directement inspiré des guerres ethniques faisant rage en ex-Yougoslavie. L’horreur d’une tuerie potentiellement instrumentalisée comme celle de Sarajevo en février 1994 devrait rendre sa transposition dans le médium ludique particulièrement délicate. Comment transformer un crime de guerre en dispositif narratif ? Dans ces conditions, quel rôle la vérité historique joue-t-elle ? Quel rapport se tisse entre l’actualité et la fiction vidéoludique ? Partant de ces interrogations, il s’agira de voir dans cet article le type de discours que le jeu vidéo est en mesure de tenir sur la question de l’ethnicité, prise à la fois dans sa dimension politique et sociale. Cela nous amènera à interroger la contribution de l'industrie vidéoludique à cet imaginaire du pouvoir socialement partagé sans lequel il n'est pas possible de faire société.

The Western Balkans Policy of the EU Within the Framework of Domino Theory

This study elaborates on the European Union’s (EU) Balkan policies evaluating the developments in the Western Balkans from the post-Cold War era until today. In addition, the study will tackle the EU policies and practices in the Western Balkans on the basis of the principles of the domino theory. In this context, the EU believes that destabilisation due to conflicts in former Yugoslavia after disintegration has also destabilised other countries in the region in domino effect. This situation means both the region and the EU will encounter security threat. In this regard, the study dwells upon EU policies in the region to provide financial aid in an attempt to ensure development and sustainability which will foster stability on the basis of the assumption that these countries in the region will be accepted to the EU as member countries after ensuring stability.

Refining the Line of Distinction between Ethnic Conflict and Security Dilemma: Towards a Theory of Identity Driven Ethnic Conflict

ABSTRACT The concept of security dilemma has been widely applied to ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia and the post-Soviet space. This paper argues that for both methodological clarity and policy formation, we should distinguish between ethnic conflicts caused by security dilemma and ones triggered by ethnic identity. It is argued that identity plays a different role in security dilemmas, but a major one in identity-based ethnic conflicts. Although ethnic identity may be at stake in the operation and dynamics of security dilemma, it is not the causal variable in the outbreak of ethnic conflict. Identity-based conflicts may reproduce many of the features of the security dilemma but have other causal factors. Distinguishing between the differing role of identity in security dilemma and identity based-ethnic conflicts may further our understanding of why certain conflicts have become so intractable, while others are relatively easier to resolve. For testing the hypothesis, empirical evidence is presented from two conflicts in the post-Soviet space with variations in the causal variable.

Why not Activated? The Temporary Protection Directive and the Mystery of Temporary Protection in the European Union

Following the conflicts in former Yugoslavia, temporary protection was introduced as a crucial elementof the European Union’s (EU) response to refugee crises. The EU even adopted a directive, the TemporaryProtection Directive, regarding its implementation. However, despite several refugee crises, it was notactivated. Building on a comprehensive analysis of official documents of European institutions andthe available secondary literature, this article investigates the main reasons behind its inactivation. Itreveals that the real concerns of EU Member States lay in the measures promoting a balance of efforts toprovide temporary protection. In other words, Member States’ concerns over responsibility and burdensharing cast a shadow over temporary protection in the EU. The article concludes that the Directive’sinactivation indicates a crisis of fundamental principles in European integration.Keywords: asylum, European Union, refugee crisis, temporary protection, solidarity

Conspiracy Mentality in Post-Conflict Societies: Relations With the Ethos of Conflict and Readiness for Reconciliation.

After almost 20 years since the end of the armed conflicts in former Yugoslavia, we are witnesses to the fact that the main causes of the conflicts have not been overcome. Reconciliation between ethnic groups that had been in conflict by means of economic and political cooperation, must have a psychological foundation. This study investigates the relations between Conspiracy Mentality, basic lexical social attitudes, and the factors important for Croatian-Serbian and Kosovo Albanian-Serbian reconciliation, i.e., the Ethos of Conflict and the Readiness for Reconciliation. We hypothesize that Conspiracy Mentality will predict the propensity for reconciliation over and above basic social attitudes, and that will mediate the relations between basic social attitudes and factors contributing (or preventing) reconciliation. With the samples of Serbs from Central Serbia (n = 307) and Northern Kosovo (n = 271), Conspiracy Mentality, Ethos of Conflict, Readiness for Reconciliation and five basic lexical social attitudes (Traditional Religiosity, Unmitigated Self-Interest, Communal Rationalism, Subjective Spirituality, and Inequality-Aversion) were measured. Results showed that Conspiracy Mentality is negatively related to the Readiness for Reconciliation and positively to the Ethos of Conflict. Additionally, Conspiracy Mentality predicts Ethos of Conflict over and above the basic social attitudes. Finally, Conspiracy Mentality mediates the relationships between Traditional Religiosity, Inequality-Aversion and Subjective Spirituality on the one hand, and Ethos of Conflict on the other. The results suggest that Conspiracy Mentality should be taken into consideration when creating policies and programmes focused on reconciliation.

Баналност моћи и идеологија универзализма

NATO's political and - above all - military participation in secession-motivated conflicts in former Yugoslavia (1990-1995), will be remembered as a clear example of demonstration of power, intentions and (in)capability of the Victor in a decades-long global "cold war" between the "freedom-loving" West and "totalitarian East". Regardless of the expectations of liberal theoreticians and the majority of public opinion, it was soon revealed that the victory was no "triumph of freedom" and even less "the end of history". On the contrary, as historically typical, it was only an unstable resultant of relations between major actors in the modern global theater, who strive to legitimize their need for domination with varying success and vocabulary. Hence the lessons to be learned from the final act of destruction of Yugoslavia (several months of NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999) have the expected tone of banality: absolute might strives for absolute power (which remains unattainable in principle); "the mighty oppress" is true always and in any place (but with a time limit); and, finally, what everyone knows but does not (or is unable or refuses) to say aloud: the only true alternative to military threat and/or aggression of a single political actor is an equally valid (military) threat/aggression by another one. We are tempted to conclude that, despite the ideological ardor of NGO activists, the political correctness of theoreticians and the rhetorical figures of speech of politicians, the "banalities" remain valid as the only certainties, i.e., regularities in the unpredictable currents of relations between states.

No country, no cry: Literature of women’s displacement and the reading of pity

ABSTRACTThis article discusses how works of popular fiction cultivate affective attachments to unstable distinctions between citizens and migrants, “refugees” and “economic migrants”, or “legal” and “irregular” migrants. Focusing on two texts published in the USA between the mid-1990s and 2015 that thematize the fallout from late-20th-century conflicts in former Yugoslavia, the article examines how novels written by women get read as instruments of women’s personal engagement with the politics of nationhood, migration and displacement. The texts encourage sympathetic disidentification from the fictional texts’ female protagonists, and provide formal signals for readers looking to distance themselves from the ambiguities of the protagonists’ status and the gendered violence it entails. The article suggests how such reading, a profitable commodity with middle-class consumers of literary texts, cultivates political imagination that aestheticizes concerns with the violence and uncertainty of all nation-making, and ascribes insecurity to unfamiliar regions and foreign women.

Zdjęcia lotnicze i materiał DNA w procesie identyfikacji skazanych na karę śmierci i rozstrzelanych w Polsce w latach 1944–1956 – zarys problematyki

Artykul przedstawia zarys problematyki procesu identyfikacji skazanych na kare śmierci i rozstrzelanych w Polsce w latach 1944–1956. Opisuje zastosowane metody badawcze: analize materialow źrodlowych, badanie georadarowe oraz badania porownawcze materialu DNA na przykladzie najwiekszych prac w Polsce, m.in. kwatery „Ł” Cmentarza Wojskowego przy ul. Powązkowskiej w Warszawie i Aresztu Śledczego w Bialymstoku. Aerial photographs and DNA material in the process of identifying sentenced to death and shot in Poland in 1944–1956 – An outline of the issue An individual approach to the process of identifying fallen victims of armed conflicts in the 20th century enjoys widespread popularity in Western Europe (Germany, Holland), Central and Eastern Europe (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Anglo-Saxon countries (especially USA) and Russia. Each of them is characterized by different identity determination resulting from the circumstances surrounding the death of a murdered person. The development of technology makes it possible for us to use methods that were inaccessible ten years ago: DNA comparative studies that ultimately verify the identity of a victim. The studies have been used for over twenty years to restore the identity people who were murdered and lost in the aftermath of the armed conflict in former Yugoslavia, especially Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Poland, the identification of bone remains was carried out in certain individual cases, such as the skull of Ludwik Szymanski, a Polish officer murdered in Katyn. Mass comparative studies of the DNA of the wanted people and their families were first used in Poland against anti-communist soldiers of the independence underground, who were sentenced to death in 1944–1956 by military district courts and shot in the prison in Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw. The article presents the research methods used in Poland, such as the analysis of source materials, geo-radar survey and comparative research of DNA material on the example of the largest works. The aim of the paper is to present sources materials that have contributed to locating and then estimating the size of burial fields. The author also describes other methods of identifying victims, critically presenting each of them.

Borders and the Relocation of Europe

The current financial and fiscal crisis within the Eurozone is the latest in a series of events to have occurred in recent decades that have been altering the meaning, purpose, and form of European borders. These events include the multiple border-altering experiments of the European Union (EU), the end of the Cold War, and the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Cumulatively, the position of Europe, as a place and as an idea, has been undergoing considerable relocation as a result. This large-scale political reorganization of spatial location has led to a shift in focus within European border studies: The way the ground underneath people's feet can be shifted turns out to be as important as the way people themselves move from one place to another, or the way people form politically inflected identities in relation to territories.

Restorative Justice and Transitional Justice at the ECHR

The entire jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights contains just one reference to ‘restorative justice’, in the 2010 case of Đokić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case concerned housing restitution after the conflict in former Yugoslavia and the reference to restorative justice was a quotation from the UN’s ‘Pinheiro Principles’. In its admissibility decision on 31 May 2011 in the case of Sfountouris and Others v. Germany, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that the Convention imposes upon Contracting States no specific obligation to redress injustice or damage caused by their predecessor. Likewise, the Convention imposes no duty upon states to restore property which was transferred to them before they ratified the Convention (Kopecky v. Slovakia), or even to establish legal procedures in which restitution of property may be sought (Beshiri v. Albania). Yet restorative justice has real potential in transitional contexts, and means far more than property restitution. This article seeks definitional clarity and tracks the relationship between restorative justice and transitional justice in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, encompassing not only property restitution cases but also cases on successor trials, amnesties, truth and memorialisation, and lustration. The analysis draws upon recent scholarship on the sometimes antagonistic relationship between successor regimes’ transitional justice policies and their human rights obligations.

Ratni zločin kao oblik patološkog ponašanja

In this paper the author tries to analyze the category of war crimes, one in a series of numerous, deviant phenomena in the sphere of ethno-political relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Indicators refer to data in quantity of the views set out in individual texts of analyzed print media (Glas Srpske, Dnevni Avaz newspaper and Jutarnji list) in the period. This tends to show that in Bosnian society, in the sphere of relations between nations, painstaking efforts to overcome the past due to recent conflicts in former Yugoslavia, attitude toward the Hague Tribunal and the crimes are still present.

Tendances et différences démographiques dans les Balkans

The Balkans, which had long been characterized by higher fertility and earlier mortality than the more western and northern parts of the European continent, have become demographically modern. They are not for that reason any less diverse. This is witnessed, for example, by the gap that separates Bulgaria, which has long made the demographic transition, and Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or Kosovo, where the natural population growth exceeds by far the migratory deficit. It is also witnessed by the very large spectrum of degrees of aging. Political and economic changes in the Balkans, the crises that accompanied them, the doubts that they have caused concerning the collective future, have reinforced the general tendencies toward delayed marriage and fertility, as well as toward reduced marriage and fertility rates. This has de facto consolidated the tendency toward demographic aging. Migrations, especially the migrations directly or indirectly related to the conflicts in former Yugoslavia, have also contributed to the modification of the demographic landscape and to the altering of the dynamic of the affected populations. They have also had an effect on the ethnic distribution of these populations. In the Balkans, whose bases have been strongly shaken in the past twenty years, heavy fertility and mortality tendencies limit the spectrum of possible mid-to-long term futures. There are also important consequences on the socioeconomic plan. All this in a political context, internal and external, that is the source of many questions.

Journalism and Propaganda: A case study based on accounts of the conflicts in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s

Cet article analyse un large éventail de livres écrits par des journalistes britanniques qui présentent des comptes rendus des guerres de l’ex-Yougoslavie – en particulier en Bosnie – dans les années 1990. Les ouvrages s’appuient sur les expériences de première main de ces journalistes qui ont couvert le conflit. L’article cherche à déterminer jusqu’à quel point de nombreux journalistes ont utilisé, de manière consciente ou non, des techniques propagandistes courantes en voulant faire campagne au travers de leur reportage. Il est démontré que cela les a souvent menés à agir de façon hypocrite dans la mesure où ils adoptaient eux-mêmes un comportement semblable à celui qu’ils fustigeaient dans leurs comptes rendus des activités propagandistes auxquelles avaient recours certaines des parties en guerre. On soulignera, par exemple, l’utilisation des données concernant l’arrière-plan historique ainsi que le fait d’établir des comparaisons avec le passé, l’estimation du nombre des victimes et l’évaluation des atrocités ou encore la diabolisation de l’ennemi et la disculpation de ceux qui sont perçus plus favorablement. On explorera également les contrastes entre différentes générations de journalistes, et la façon dont les journalistes étaient vus par d’autres ou se percevaient eux-mêmes, ainsi que la manière dont ils ont réagi à la manipulation des médias par certaines des parties au conflit.

The UN Security Council approach to the conflicts in former Yugoslavia

This article analyses UN Security Council resolutions taken in respect to Former Yugoslavia, revealing their specifics and comparative (dis)advantages to the Security Council involvement in other conflicts. It shows how the Security Council enlarged the interpretation of what may constitute a ‘threat to international peace and security’, what innovative actions were undertaken and how the concept of sanctions gradually evolved from blanket economic sanctions against states into targeted measures against individuals.

Ivo Andrić as Red Rag and Political Football

THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume8o, Number2 April2002 Ivo Andric as Red Rag and Political Football CELIAHAWKESWORTH 'Todaywe knowless about Andricthan before. He used once to be forus far more a writerthan the political or national symbolwhich he later undoubtedlybecame, particularlyin the lastfiftyyears.'Muhamed Filipovic, Dani,22 October I999, P. 41 'Today everyone claimsAndric, althoughfew readhim, and even fewer nurturethe spiritcontained in his novels and stories.'ZdravkoZima, Zadovo1jstvo utekstu, www.modernavremena .hr/zado/es_zima.asp, 29 November 2000 THE title of this article deliberately uses hackneyed terms in order to reflect the crude nature of the abuse of language that has characterized the recent conflict in former Yugoslavia. It is extraordinarily easy to inflame passions with a carefully chosen word as the regimes of both Milo'sevic and Tudjman abundantly demonstrated. This generally frenzied atmosphere, in which language has exceptional power, is the context for a reappraisal of many aspects of the region's past. At a time of violent upheaval and radical change, such a reappraisal of significant aspects of a nation's culture is inevitable. The old certainties have shattered and the future belongs to those who can create the most compelling story to give new shape to the past and cast the most Celia Hawkesworth is Senior Lecturer in Serbian and Croatian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. 202 CELIA HAWKESWORTH favourable possible light on the present. Or so at least it seems at the time to those with the power to forge the stories.The hollow nature of the projectwas clear almost immediately in Croatia,where Tudjman's significance seemed to have been largely extinguished with his death. The trauma confronting Serbia since Milosevic was extradited to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity is far deeper and more problematic. In this generalprocess of reassessment,the figureof Ivo Andric is an obvious target. In his lifetime Andric representeda unique phenomenon in being one of the few genuinely and explicitly Yugoslavwriters and the only YugoslavNobel-Prize winner. He was hailed and praised in all the republics of the former Yugoslavia. Such a phenomenon is meaningless today. The man and his work have become the object of energetic and impassioned debate among all the main culturalgroups in the new post-Yugoslavstates. Andric himself would not have been surprisedat the way he and his worksare being treated today. Shortly before his death, he wrote in one of his numerous jottings on the writer's craft: 'Your work will provide cover for decent fighters of various trends and ideologies, and for fanatics who have nothing whatsoever to do with them, who will use it ruthlesslyinsofar as it is advantageousto them and in the manner thatbest suitsthem." Some biographicalfacts andtheir symbolic value If we consider some elements of his biographywe shallsee that Andric is in a quite specificsituationin relationto allthree of the main cultural groups in the region: Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Andric was born, in I892, into a Catholic family in western Bosnia, in or near the town of Travnik.(A recent article suggeststhat so uncertain has everything about Andric become that he may not actually have been born in Travnik at all, but in a train, his mother having unexpectedly gone into labour before the family could reach the town.) It shouldbe saidthatAndrichimselfcontributedto the sense of mystery about his birthplace. He was proverbially resistant to discussion of his personal life, regarding it as quite irrelevant to an understandingofhiswork.When he was once askedthe directquestion: 'Mr Andric, is the house in Travnik,which bears a plaque with your name, in fact the house in which you were born?', Andric is said to have replied: 'Aman must be born somewhere.' After the family had lived for a very short time in Travnik, Andric's father died and his mother went with the child to live with her brother-in-lawand his wife in Visegrad in easternBosnia. This small town, with its mixed Muslim ' Quoted by Ivo Zanic, 'The Writer in Isolation. How Andric's writing was used in the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina', MOST,I999, p. 172. ANDRIC AS RED RAG AND POLITICAL FOOTBALL 203 andOrthodoxpopulationon theDrinariver,whichformedfromthe...

Russia and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia

Moscow's efforts to redefine its national interests and relations with the West in the post‐Cold War era has directed the country's stance towards the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. Russia's intention to present itself as an influential power in the international efforts to manage the crises following the dissolution of Yugoslavia largely explains Moscow's frequently contradictory stances, not only towards the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, but also in its intention to play the role of an effective mediator in the region. At the same time, Russia's strategic concern to sustain its international standing and influence through its membership in international organizations, such as the UN and OSCE, has rendered Moscow as the state that considers the weakening of those organizations as one of its external security threats.