Amid shifting EU migration policies and persistent border vulnerabilities, security expert Nikola Vujinović has flagged the triple threat facing the Western Balkans: illegal migration, organized crime, and what he calls the “instrumentalisation” of foreign influence narratives.
His remarks warn that local elites are often blurring real threats with political messaging to serve internal agendas.
The region, positioned at the crossroads of major smuggling routes and caught between EU accession ambitions and geopolitical friction, remains a live security theatre—one where perception may prove as powerful as policy.
