Donors & Partners: CEI, DCAF, General Staff of Albanian Armed Forces, International Centre for Black Sea Studies, UNITAR POCI, Start Siccureza and Albanian businesses.
Upon its own initiative and as a highlight of its successful activities for 2008, the Center for Security Studies of the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) under the support of CEI (Central European Initiative) has successfully completed the 1st Regional Summer School on Security Studies (RSS 2008), which took place in the premises of Joint Force Command, Durrës, Albania during the period of September 8 – 19, 2008. Through this intensive two week program designed as a continuing learning process ranging from in-classroom modules/lectures to production of case studies, IDM intended to create an academic environment which would provide researchers and practitioners from the European Continent interested in security issues in the Southeast European region) with an updated perspectives of contemporary security challenges.
The RSS roster of participants included graduate and post-graduate students, mid to senior level security sector officials, practitioners, researchers, graduate students as well as staff of security sector corporations from as many as eleven Balkans and European countries including Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Austria, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey. The RSS required the know-how and expertise of international, regional and national academics, senior officials and lecturers from Europe and North America who supported IDM in this initiative. The key purpose was to not merely instruct summer school participants but to also enhance their capacities to better understand Balkan, European and global security challenges through five courses focusing on Introduction to Security Studies and Human Security; Research and Analysis in the field of security studies; Security in the Balkans & the Role of Euro-Atlantic Integration; Global Terrorism; Peace keeping and International Conflict Resolution.