Institute for Democracy and Mediation

About Center for Security Studies About Institute for Democracy and Mediation

About RS School

IDM Center for Security Studies in cooperation with United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Programme of Correspondence Instruction in Peacekeeping Operations – UNITAR POCI is organizing the 1^st Regional Summer School on Security Studies. Graduate (or last year graduate) & postgraduate students, researchers, practitioners and high officials of security sector institutions from the Balkans and other European countries will be invited to attend a two-week summer school in Albania and benefit from the experience and know-how of eminent international speakers – professors and experts from US, Europe and the Balkans. The Summer School academic programme has been designed with an aim to advance security studies, research and capacities of participants in order to better understand and analyze security challenges.

A Scientific Board that will examine and guide the academic training process within the Regional Summer School has been established and it involves eminent academics and professionals in the field of security studies.

Regional Summer School Scientific Board:
Dr. Christopher FARRANDS - Nottingham Trent University (UK)
Dr. Velizar SHALAMANOV – Chairman of “George C. Marshall” Association (Bulgaria)
Dr. Rexhep MEIDANI - former President of the Republic of Albania
Dr. Giovanni ERCOLANI – UNITAR POCI representative for IDM
Dr. Saso ORDANOVSKI – FORUM, Center for Strategic Research and Documentation (Macedonia)
Dr. Dusan JANIC – University of Belgrade (Serbia)

The Summer School activities are implemented under the guidance and support of:

Mr. Sotiraq Hroni - Summer School Director
Prof. Giovanni Ercolani - Summer School Assistant Director
Mr. Gjergji Vurmo - Summer School Assistant Director
Ms. Erisa Cela – Summer School Coordinator

Structure

The Regional Summer School is designed as a continuous learning process which will take place throughout three stages. Our intention is to develop a training programme that will not only provide summer school participants with a thorough background on security studies but will also encourage them to make full use of the acquired skills and knowledge.

I Component – Summer School (September)

Participants will be provided with a comprehensive background and adequate research skills on security studies in a two-week summer school. This event, representing the most important component of the learning process, will cover six core topics in the field of security studies and will enable the students to better understand and analyze the contemporary security challenges from a Balkan, Europe and global security perspective.

In order to be awarded the “IDM Certificate of Attendance” participants will have to attend all the lectures, submit a “project paper” on a specific security issue (case study), and make a “project paper presentation”. Students will have direct access to all the lecturers while preparing themselves to face the UNITARPOCI Final Exams in “Global Terrorism” and “Peacekeeping and International Conflict Resolution”, in order to obtain the Certificates of Completion (with ACCP credits) from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

II. Component – Case Studies (October - November)

At this stage our goal is to encourage summer school participants to make use of the acquired knowledge and research skills in the security studies field through further elaborating the case-studies presented at the end of the Summer School. Students will have at their disposal one month to submit the final version of the paper, based on the “project paper” presented and defended during the first component period. The best papers will be published by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation in the subsequent issue of its quarterly review “Security Issues”.

III Component – Regional Workshop (December)

Finally, the third component of this initiative will conclude the learning process through a regional workshop to be held in Tirana where most successful summer school participants will present their work to an audience of experts, practitioners, university professors, researchers and specialists of security sector institutions. In addition to UNITAR POCI’s Certificate of Completion, a special award will be consigned to top three students of the 2008 course in a special ceremony.

Courses

The Regional Summer School has gathered eminent international and regional lecturers coming from various academic and research institutions such as DCAF (Geneva Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces) UNITAR POCI, Universities etc. The courses are designed to guide summer school participants through a smooth learning process of approximately 30 meetings in two weeks which involves both, local / regional and global aspects of contemporary developments in the security studies field. Accordingly, the Summer School approach will involve teaching methods that are designed to facilitate an effective process of continuous interactive training on security matters and that will avoid an overload in that course.

Diploma / Awards

An “IDM Certificate of Attendance” will be issued to all summer school participants that have attended the summer school courses and have submitted and presented a “project paper” on a specific security issue (case study).

Students, who have achieved a passing grade of 75% or higher in the “Global Terrorism Course” and/or the “UN Peacekeeping and International Conflict Resolution Final Exam” are awarded the Certificate-of-Completion from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Programme of Correspondence, Instruction in Peacekeeping Operations (www.unitarpoci.org). UNITAR POCI Global Terrorism Course provides 54 ACCP credits (Army Correspondence Course Program), while Peacekeeping and International Conflict Resolution Course provides 22 ACCP credits.

The Summer School Scientific Board will select the best papers (case studies) submitted by the participants, to be published by the Institute for Democracy and Mediation in a special edition of its quarterly review “Security Issues”. The top three students will present their work at Tirana Regional Workshop (December 2008) while a special award will be consigned to them by IDM.

Costs & Scholarships

A limited number of scholarships are available for participants from the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia) covering travel expenses (up to 150 EUR) and accommodation (fully covered by IDM). The tuition fee for summer school students coming from Western Balkan countries is 150 EUR (to be paid upon confirmation of admission).

Participants from other European and non-European countries will have to cover themselves all costs regarding their participation at the Summer School. More specifically:

Travel costs
Accommodation (420 EUR for full board accommodation per person for two weeks)
Tuition fee of 300 EUR (upon confirmation of admission)

All students must arrange their own visa procedure (if needed) and health / accident insurance during the Summer School period.

IDM will fully cover the travel expenses of the top three students of the Regional Summer School who will be invited to present their work at Tirana Regional Workshop (December 2008).