New research into alternative conflict prevention in the Western Balkans is being explored today at a workshop co-hosted by UEL in cooperation with the University of Banja Luka, and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The policy-relevant COPA (Conflict Prevention Alternatives) Project aims to deal with issues of considerable importance for the successful integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union and will consolidate a consortium of Universities and NGOs across Europe and the Balkans, covering Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and (the Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia.
The project is being developed as part of a funding bid to Europe’s largest Research and Innovation programme ‘Horizon 2020’ which is being led by Professor Vassilis Fouskas, from UEL’s Royal Docks Business School. If successful the project will involve researchers from the Centre for the Study of States, Markets & People (STAMP) at UEL, as well as other scholars across the University.
Professor Fouskas comments: “The COPA project sees sustainable development, smart growth and smart employment and modernisation not as post-conflict strategies for the region but as conflict prevention strategies. The findings of the project will have profound implications for policy directed both at preventing crises and responding to them when prevention fails.”
The Conflict Prevention Alternatives (COPA) workshop is taking place today at the University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Image: Professor Vassilis Fouskas
UEL Research, Innovation and Impact 