Belgrade Security Forum, The Balkan and Global Security: What do we have in common, what sets us apart? Belgrade, 13-16 September 2011‏

Organizers of the Belgrade Security Forum (Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Belgrade fund for Political Excellence and the European Movement in Serbia) are pleased to invite young scholars (PhD students and recent PhDs) to submit proposal papers to be delivered at the Belgrade Security Forum (BSF), regional security conference which will gather several hundred top level policy and decision makers, NGO leaders, experts, academics and journalists to be held on September 13-16 2011 in Belgrade. Accepted papers will be presented during the academic sessions (September 13-14) of the Belgrade Security Forum. The aim of the academic sessions is to foster academic discussion about security in South East Europe, connect young scholars interested in the subject and feed scholarly insights into the policy sessions of the Belgrade Security Forum (September 14-16).

The organizers will welcome papers which are offering challenging, innovative and policy oriented ideas on how to better understand and improve Balkan and European security. We are particularly looking for papers dealing with lessons learned in security community building and security sector reform in the Western Balkans and their relevance for other regions on the road to democracy such as the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Other topics that we are interested in are:

1. European Security Architecture

2. Democratization and Securitization

3. Post-conflict security community building

4. Emerging Security Challenges in the Western Balkans

5. State Building in the Western Balkans

The organizers will cover travel and accommodation expenses for all the participants who are expected to present their papers in oral and written form during the academic sessions and take part in the rest of the Belgrade Security Forum according to their interest.

Selected papers will be published in the Western Balkans Security Observer, academic journal of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, think-tank from Serbia. All submissions are required to contain the applicant's CV attached to his/her paper proposal which should not exceed 500 words. Submissions should be made electronically to Filip Ejdus at filip.ejdus@fpn.bg.ac.rs. The deadline for submissions is 20 July 2011. All successful candidates will be contacted by 1 August at the latest.