Stagnation in Western Balkans’ Security Regionalization: The Problem of Competing Regional Cultures of Anarchy

The problem in Western Balkans’ unstable and growingly challenged security provision is identified by scholars and practitioners in too many actors with diverse (regional) interests and lack of local states’ ownership in the regional security regime. This chapter’s aim is to offer a more comprehensive reading of the regionalization process—defining the Western Balkans as a regional complex advancing towards regional society. Focusing on the content of security regionalism, we answer “How can we explain the stagnation of security regionalisation in the Western Balkans?” Based on the conceptual linkage between levels of regionness and culture of anarchy, we make an empirical investigation of all 40 regional security institutions in operation mapped by MIND research project. The results show that that the Western Balkan countries are currently practicing divergent cultures of anarchy, moving from Hobbesian to Lockean culture of regional anarchy and at the same time being strongly incentivized to accelerate regional dynamics towards Kantian culture. The endogenous initiatives by Western Balkan states expose countries’ interest to functionally cooperate on the basis of interdependence needs (energy, environmental security, disaster prevention, and crisis management) (strengthening Lockean culture of anarchy) but lack willingness in cooperation in security areas that demand relaxed inward orientation of states and would lead to trust and collective identity-building (elements of Kantian culture of anarchy).