Western Balkans Futures 2043
Strategic Foresight Lab: How can the EU and the countries of the Western Balkans close the geopolitical gap in Southern Europe? – Perspectives from the year 2043.
Since 2016, the German Aspen Institute in Berlin – together with the Bureau fuer Zeitgeschehen – has been running the “Strategic Foresight Lab on the Future of the Western Balkans”. The lab is one of the rare examples that prove that foresight makes a difference in strategic thinking and decision-making.
While in the 2010s the discussion within the European Union about the accession of the hashtag#Western Balkans to the EU was predominantly a technocratic discourse (opening and closing chapters of the acquis), today the discussion is characterized by geopolitical urgency and necessity. The bottom line: “Europe must complete its unfinished business in the Western Balkans and close the strategic gap in its backyard soon.”
