Progressive Peace Policy

Peace and stability initiatives represent a decades-long cornerstone of the FES' work in southeastern Europe. Recent events have only reaffirmed the centrality of southeast European stability within the broader continental security paradigm. Both democratization and socio-economic justice are intrinsic aspects of a larger progressive peace policy in the region, but so too are consistent threat assessments and efforts to prevent conflict before it erupts. Preventive approaches, however, do not work without the cooperation of non-state actors. Confidence-building and ‘good neighborly relations’ for instance can only be achieved by including the population at large. By organizing exchange between civil society and decision-makers on equal grounds, Dialogue SOE aims to broaden the discourse on peace and stability in southeastern Europe and to counter the securitization of prevalent narratives from migration to radicalization.