The EU and Arms Control: Building Capacities in the Western Balkans

The paper examines the European Union’s arms control policies, capabilities and infrastructure and determines the development of these policies and the relevant strategic and institutional infrastructure in the Western Balkans. It uses the nuclear pessimist approach to explain the theoretical underpinnings of the EU’s approach to arms control and compare the Western Balkans stands in relation to the EU’s. The authors present the EU policy toward the various arms control issues and examine the level of harmonisation of the Western Balkan states with the EU resolutions and strategies in the arms control area. Additionally, the authors present some of the EU institutional and educational infrastructure in the field of arms control and more detailed overview of the state of the discipline in the Western Balkans academic institutions. Authors conclude that most of the Western Balkans countries follow the EU examples in strategic and institutional field, but should work more on the improvement of diplomatic and educational architecture creating a real potential to become an arms control promoter as the only European region that still successfully implement sub-regional arms control regime.