From November 14-16, 2018, the International Republican Institute (IRI) brought together 177 participants from six Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as outside officials from Western Europe and the United States for the Western Balkans Resilience Forum (WBRF) in Budva, Montenegro.

IRI Regional Director for Europe Paul McCarthy chaired the final panel discussion, “Reciprocal Radicalisation and Cumulative Extremism.” Panellists included Edina Becirevic from the University of Sarajevo; Izabela Kisic, Executive Director of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights from Serbia; Erik Larson, legal advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica and former international prosecutor; and Afrodita Musliu from Nexus-Civil Concept from Macedonia. They provided important insights into the phenomenon of cumulative extremism in the context of the Western Balkans, where the legacy of the ethnonationalist conflicts still impacts communities and states.

Violence and less-than-violent extremism can erupt not only along religious or ethnic lines, but among partisan, ideological, or other lines as well. Macedonia has faced inter-ethnic tensions, but now faces “intra-ethnic tensions and tensions within one political party.”   Afrodita Musliu, a researcher at Nexus Civil Concept, agreed, stating that the Western Balkans “still need[s] projects of reconciliation and resilience building among all communities, not only in multi-ethnic and multi-religious but also in mono-ethnic and mono-religious communities.”