The Atlantic Council of Croatia successfully held traditional 14th International Summer School in Sipan, Croatia, 26 June – 1 July 2015, in cooperation with NATO PDD and International Institute for Peace. The School was divided into two topics: Mediterranean between Europe and Middle East: Challenges and Perspectives, organized with the support of NATO Public Diplomacy Division; and another topic was: Western Balkans between Integration and Isolation, co-organized with the International Institute for Peace, Vienna.
The School gathered speakers and participants from 15 different countries, United States of America, Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Canada, Austria, Hungary, Greece and all Western Balkan countries. The organizers invited as speakers many professors, experts and people from politics who transferred their knowledge to 40 participants, young leaders, PhD candidates, students from many countries, giving them different perspectives of the current situation of international security and stability. Participants were mostly interested in Macedonian crisis, current Greek crisis, but also Kosovo status.
President of the Atlantic Council of Croatia prof. Radovan Vukadinovic PhD greeted everybody in Šipan International Summer School, saying that the aim is to gather in one place young leaders and offer them knowledge and different perspectives of the international relations today. Fabrizio Luccioli, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, whose member is the Atlantic Council of Croatia, warned on the dangers coming from Mediterranean, especially taking into consideration situations related to refugees seeking help from Europe. President of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna Dr. Hannes Swoboda stated in his presentation that there are many new actors in today’s new world (dis)order, and future of the Western Balkans is still not clear.
That was the reason that main concerns were related to the Western Balkans, countries such as Macedonia and Kosovo, but also discussions covered current Greek crisis and how it could influence the regional security and stability. One of the conclusions of the International Summer School is that the international security and stability in this part of Europe is still rather fragile.
