The event was officially opened by the Official representative of Konrad Adenauer Foundation Office in Skopje, Daniel Braun, and the Rector of the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Bitola, Dr. Sasho Korunovski.

In his introductory speech the official representative of KAS, Daniel Braun, talked about the current security challenges which Europe and the region is facing as a result of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Referring to the possible repercussions and the eventual escalation of the situation and their extension on the Western Balkan Region, Braun pointed out the risks from the smoldering conflicts in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this regards he expressed hope that sanity will prevail out of the horrible experiences from the past, and regional peace will be secured.  

The Rector Prof. Sasho Korunovski greeted the initiative and expressed his satisfaction from the fruitful cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in regard to the support of the higher education and the academic publishing work of the universities. At the same time, he encouraged the academic community to continue to contribute in this direction.

In his analysis of the currents developments in Ukraine Prof. Trajan Gocevski who is a current member of the National Security Council and a former i.e. first Minister of Defence, warned about the rapid economic consequences which would affect Europe and the region as a result of the war aggression in Ukraine. He expressed hope that the actors involved will stop their aggression activities and will intensify their negotiation activities.

The director of the National Security Agency Viktor Dimovski assessed the security situation in North Macedonia as “stabile, with increased level of sensitivity”. In his speech Dimovski referred to the permanent hybrid threats such as disinformation, propaganda and fake news, which have their influence mostly to the younger population. According Dimovski, the country is exposed to a continuous intelligence interest by countries which are not members of associations and unions to which the country belongs or aspires. Furthermore, he pointed out the existence of religious-radicalized persons, organizations and associations with extremist rhetoric, as well as non-formal radicalized groups, which are considered as a risk to the national security. Thus, beside all of these security risks, Dimovski pointed out that the security institutions and services of the country have the capacity to cope with these challenges.

According to Prof. Marjan Gjurovski, the war in Ukraine has disturbed the global security architecture and it is a security risks also for North Macedonia and the whole region. The NATO membership is more than helpful for the country in this regard, thus the security threats are still present. According Gjurovski, the country needs to also to mobilize all its capacities and to implement internal institutional reforms of the national security system, pointing out in this regard examples of direct hybrid threats by some external actors. He expressed his satisfaction from the fact that all relevant political actors in the country expressed a clear condemnation of the Russian aggression in Ukraine and pointed out that the state needs to demonstrate unity from inside and to strengthen its strategic partnership and cooperation with Germany, Great Britain and France.

Referring to the university study book “Fundamentals of Security - Conceptual Security Approaches”, Prof. Oliver Bakreski from the Institute for Security, Defence and Peace in Skopje, Prof. Nedzat Korajlic from the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo and Prof. Marjan Nikolovski from the Faculty of Security – Skopje, which are part of the editorial team of the publication, evaluated the publication as a big contribution to the security science, addressing the topic by an interdisciplinary approach.  

The discussion was moderated by Slavica Arsova, News editor in chief at Sitel TV.

Publisher of the university text book are the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the St. Kliment Ohridski University of Bitola. The publication will be part of the curricula at the department of security studies, criminalistics and criminology at the Faculty of Security in Skopje, in the first, second and third cycle of studies.