almanac on security sector oversight in the Western Balkans

The emergence of new actors permanently eroded the security monopoly and exclusivity
of the traditional security forces. Parallel with this, a shift of national security
from the high politics domain to the public policy domain began. Today, only parliament
has the competencies to define national security strategy in Western Balkan
countries, and executive bodies are obliged to draw upon those strategies in order
to create and implement the current security policy. To achieve this, a clear chain of
civilian command was established in these countries (Annex, Table 5). The lines of
integrated and coordinated management of the state security institutions were simultaneously
developed. Professional autonomy of the military, police and intelligence
services was formally secured and strengthened. 206 Civilian supremacy in governance
was also strengthened, owing to a gradual inclusion of non-uniformed experts in
relevant ministries. This partly limited the influence of the security elites’ corporate
interests on governance. This is also the goal of professionalisation of public administrations,
aimed at limiting the influence of the political class on the governance of the
security sector. It can be justifiably concluded that executive actors in the region now
possess all necessary authorities and means for strict control of the state security forces.
It is far more important that this form of control, unlike the inherited authoritarian
model, is now based, at least declaratively, on democratic procedures and precepts. All
leaders and executives are bound by law to work transparently and to be available to
the public, in accordance with legal provisions on confidentiality.
The main supporter of democratic governance comes from the fact that security sector
governance regimes have now become rather complex, owing to an increased number
of actors as well as administrative and command reforms. The establishment of bodies
and procedures for internal control of each security institution is an additional check.
Evaluation and assessment of the readiness and capacity of the units and members of
a given institution is among the key competencies of internal control bodies. They are
authorised to control the legality of security forces’ work, including budget spending.
In addition, one duty of internal control bodies is to systematically monitor whether
the security institutions respect human rights of the public and of their own personnel.
Managerial and command competencies in the Western Balkans countries are distributed
among different bodies and institutions of the executive branch. For example, a
country’s ministry of finance has an obligation to systematically control financial management
in the statutory security sector. This is additional proof that systemic deconcentration,
redistribution and restriction of security power has been undertaken. This
dangerous power is thus no longer solely in the hands of a single state leader or ruling
group. Local security services can no longer apply special measures without a court’s
written consent. It can be safely assumed that the danger of arbitrary – external or
internal – abuse of state security forces has been largely removed in the region.
In order to prevent a situation in which all decision-making would depend on the
power and willingness or unwillingness of the current administration, and on the ex-
206 It was for this purpose that the position of the director was introduced, who is selected through
open competition.
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