Security Studies

The state of Kosovo is located in a geo-strategic position of the Western Balkans, and continuously is exposed to threats of interference by Serbia, whether directly or in other forms, like the hybrid threats. Kosovo is lagging behind in receiving more recognitions of the states in the world, and Serbia’s mature engagement in order to make obstacles in its membership in international organizations, in one hand, and the political crises accompanied by frequent early parliamentary elections, on the other hand, are sufficient political and theoretical circumstances in taking our decision for the analysis of the hybrid threats in Kosovo. Since the trends and the international developments in Western Balkans exclude the classical war as a mean for reaching goals, now the war is being developed in other forms, like diplomatic, economic, and technological ones. In referring to the theoretical definitions, the hybrid threats dedicate to the use of methods and means by a state or non-state actor, which decides to influence practically or strengthen its influence, in order to increase its interests, strategies, and evil-minded goals. These definitions mostly fit to the special war of Serbia against Kosovo. The fact that Kosovo does not have a special platform for reading the potential hybrid services, gives bigger interest to our scientific analysis. The legal, political and economic aspect, the media aspect, as well, without excluding the classical spying, that Serbia can still use in Kosovo, will be part of our scientific analysis. I must emphasize the measures to be proposed in a manner that Kosovo will be able to identify easier the destructive and destabilizing elements within its territory that contribute to Serbia’s interest, and damaging Kosovo.

Referring to the Charter of the European Community of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers, adopted by the EEC Member States, held in Strasbourg on 9 December 1989, the Occupational Safety and Health(OSH),has a significant role, that "Every employee must contribute in their own working environment to meet satisfactory conditions and protect his health and safety, or take adequate precautions, especially for involvement of information and consultation of current threats and measures to be taken to overcome or diminishing them”. The participation of workers and their representatives in negotiation for creation of policies in the field of Occupational Safety and Health in their companies contributes to reduce the causes of accidents and occupational diseases, identify appropriate implemented measures to control the risk in order to reduce the likelihood of accidents at work. In this paper, specifically I am going to elaborate statutory regulation of this institute and the best practices in the EU, which is the dilemma in seeking the legislator in terms of improving the participation of safety and health employee representatives I hope this paper will modestly contribute towards providing information, guidance on the role and contribution of the employees themselves and their representatives for Occupational Safety and Health at Work.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the sources of Russian influence in the Western Balkans. The most influential tool of the Russian Federation is the information warfare, composed with hybrid tactics, attempting to set a foot in the Western Balkans. Qualitative methods were used for analysis and the findings. The main results indicate that Russia has divers’ methods to impact political developments in the Balkans. Russia has been interested in this part of Europe, and it engages with all interested sides in the region. With its state propaganda, Russia at least has the ability to divert the policies of the Western Balkan states towards the EU. Moscow prefers the status of neutrality of the countries that emerged from the Yugoslav Federation. In other words, Kremlin challenges the U.S. on some levels and the sources of Russian influence primarily are stemming from information warfare strategies integrated in different platforms. Recently the EU and the U.S. have expressed their concerns on several occasions over the direction of democracy in the Balkans. Indeed, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia remain on the edge of Russia’s ‘sharp knife’ which has the purpose of reversing the reforms and imposing the set of regulations which favors Kremlin in the Balkans. As the paper indicates, Russia uses domestic and international news outlets as propaganda to reach the nations in the region to win hearts and minds of the people against the Western approach to some extent. Therefore, the tendency of Russian propaganda remains a threat for the Western Balkans fragile societies. Russian strategic investments are primarily in the energy infrastructure, the oil market and the news outlet organizations around the region. However, Russia keeps her hands open and engages with Serbia via the news organizations such as ‘Sputink Serbija’ and it utilizes Belgrade as a geopolitical tool to stir the unrest in Northern Kosovo. Russia and Serbia have good strategic relations which makes Russia a great power in the Balkans and as a key player. We conclude that the Balkans remain a flashpoint for regional actors and non-state actors. The Balkan states must continue the path of reforms as the only way to achieve peace and prosperity. But as paper emphasizes, Russia will continue to play crucial role in all events of the Balkan politics due to the power of Russian Federation in international politics.

While we are having our time off, lunchtime, sleep time or we disconnect from information network for some moments, we see that with the clicks we are making in our computer machine, we stumble in a lot of new information. But in the ICT field, we are full of information about hundreds of new software programs and applications..., which make work easier for us in these services e.g. banking, health care system, education, administration, production, etc. All these goods come as a result of the epochal development of digitalization. Large data collection; "BIG DATA", "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE", "COMMUNICATION NETWORKS", "e-GOVERNANCE" and "INTERNET", is a necessity, almost insurmountable in support of our work be they services; operational, educational, administrative... or scientific research. Whereas, the coherence of the implementation of international, constitutional, and ethical rules regarding the dignity of the individual, fundamental rights, privacy and security of personal data, leave much to be desired because their violation is the concern of the new democratic society. Understanding of Information Security, Information systems, Big Data, Legal-Ethical Rules, and Violation of the individual’s data, are the focus of the following topic.

This paper aims to present a model of information security in the context of the global pandemic "COVID-19". The world today is facing the "COVID-19" virus that made life difficult for citizens and created the sense of insecurity for the public around the world. The global pandemic "COVID-19" created a challenging situation in all areas, especially in the field of public safety. This situation challenged the work of educational, economic and in particular the work of health and security institutions. Criminals of various profiles are exploiting the fear and insecurity from the pandemic, especially those dealing with cybercrime such as hackers and cyber criminals who are taking advantage of the situation to attack computer networks, information systems, businesses and even global organizations.With the spread of the coronavirus, the security of information in Kosovo and the world has been endangered, because many profiles that spread false news have been created and are mainly related to the new virus, or even individual cyber-attacks and attacks on various companies have been activated.The transfer of work from home to the office on one hand has created facilities and security for employees because the fact that they work from home offers greater security and prevents their infection with the virus "COVID 19" but on the other hand it was followed by the risk of information security. Initially hackers attempted to access various organizations through workers who work from home, because at home the infrastructure for work is weaker.

The countries of the Western Balkans have been in the international spotlight in recent years due to being the first per capita exporter in Europe of volunteers fighting for Salafist Jihad armed organizations such as ISIS and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (known formerly known as Jabhal al-Nusra) .1 Thus, the interest of researchers in the region for this phenomenon has increased, especially in the countries most affected by it, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, but also in Macedonia and Albania. . Their policy findings and recommendations have been used to date for various state strategies and have served as the basis for designing measures to combat or prevent violent extremism. In fact, no external conflict has affected Kosovo from within like this. Two Kosovars carried out suicide attacks in Iraq, and several others rose to the top of the ISIS hierarchy, one of whom rose to fame through a horrific act of beheading that was broadcast globally. Other Kosovars have carried out attacks on Western Europe and the United States. Characterized by religious tolerance, Kosovo was taken out of control as the influence of extremist groups increased. Kosovo has since stepped up its activities to combat violent extremism with more than 100 arrests and investigations launched against about 78 people suspected of involvement in recruitment activities for ISIS and Al Nusra. It also adopted the "Strategy for the Prevention of Extremism and Violent Radicalization in the Fight against Terrorism 2015-2020", to address the long-term problem of violent extremism on the ground, supported by UNDP. With a comprehensive legislative framework for combating violent extremism (CVE), in 2016, Kosovo expanded its legislative framework needed to address new CVE-related challenges.