August 20, 2008
The HUMSEC (Human Security) Project
Abstract:
The aim of the article is to highlight the ways in which transnational organised crime in the Western
Balkans developed and is developing, on the one hand, and some problems of combating transnational
organized crime on the other. For that purpose the author analyses the development and challenges of
criminal investigation trends in the Western Balkans and Slovenia, and reviewed literature and other
sources to identify main problems and try to find some answers. If new technologies are being used
(misused) for criminal purposes, then it is logical to use them in the field of criminal justice, that is,
for the purpose of the scientific suppression of crime. In that sense, professional education of judges,
prosecutors, attorneys and police should include knowledge of criminalistics, which is not the case in
all transitional countries. From all above stated facts it is important to analyse transitional crime
problems in the Western Balkans that we can plan for the future. In conclusion, the author examines
certain measures that expose failures and suggests some answers to the questions in connection with
the fight on transnational organised crime in the Western Balkans. The diffuse nature and complexity
of the problem should not reduce the countries’ determination to counter it, for that alone would result
in failure....
November 14, 2006
United Nations // United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Abstract:
Over ten years after the signature of the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the
wars in Bosnia and Croatia, steady progress has been made in finding durable
solutions for the hundreds of thousands of persons displaced by the wars in the former
Yugoslavia. By September 2004, returns to and within Bosnia and Herzegovina
reached the one million landmark figure. The number of persons in need of durabl#e
solutions (refugees and internally displaced) in the former Yugoslavia, which peaked
at over two million during the Bosnian crisis in 1992-95 and the Kosovo crisis in
1999, decreased to less than one million by the end of 2003 and to approximately
560,000 by mid-2006.
Yet, behind these encouraging trends, the picture is more nuanced. Most of the
refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who found durable solutions were
those displaced by the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the first half of
the 1990s. But the majority of the IDPs and refugees who fled the Kosovo province
of Serbia and Montenegro after the ousting of the Yugoslav army and the return of the
ethnic Albanian majority in mid 1999 are still in their places of displacement and the
situation of the minorities remaining in Kosovo is still precarious, as the analysis
below shows. From an institutional point of view, there is still some "unfinished
business"1 in the Western Balkans: in June 2006 Montenegro declared independence
and was admitted to the UN, spelling the end of the State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro, a loose confederation that replaced the remnants of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia. The final status of the Kosovo province of Serbia is also being
discussed, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1244.
As result of this situation, UNHCR's operations in the Western Balkans are centred
on two themes: "Post-Dayton" refugees and IDPs (from the wars in Croatia and
Bosnia) and refugees and IDPs from Kosovo. A third theme, beyond the scope of this
paper, is the development of asylum legislation and procedures in accordance with
international standards, in line with UNHCR's traditional mandate....
September 30, 2005
Mine Action Information Center // James Madison University
Abstract:
The International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) was established March 12, 1998, by the government of the Republic of Slovenia. The main activities of ITF are demining, mine victims assistance (MVA), training, mine awareness, mine risk education (MRE), Geographical Information Systems (GIS) development and regional cooperation. In the years since its inception, ITF has developed into the main regional actor in the field of mine action (MA) in the region of southeastern Europe (SEE). In addition, ITF is strongly involved in connecting the region through the Southeastern Europe Mine Action Coordination Council (SEEMACC)....
April 12, 2005
Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies // Nanyang Technological University
Abstract:
In an effort to make European troops more employable in out-of-area operations, the United States has urged NATO to set goals of having each member nation able to deploy 40 percent of its forces abroad with at least 8 percent of each nation's military actually deployed at any given time. The motivation behind this idea would be to help sustain the ongoing shift from reliance on territorial defenses during the Cold War to expeditionary forces in the post-September 11 era. Even so, this objective may be exceedingly difficult for new NATO members to achieve, given the competing budgetary and political pressures to which they are subjected....
Slovenia 
