Sonja Stojanović Gajić has been BCSP Director since 2006. She holds an MA in Politics, Security and Integration with distinction from the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, University College London. She is currently a PhD candidate at the International Studies Department of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. She is the author of the methodology for measuring security sector reform (SSR) in transitional societies from the perspective of civil society tested in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia published in the Almanac of Security Sector Oversight in the Western Balkans. She is one of the lead researchers in the research on practices of security community-building “The Western Balkans from Conflict Zone to Security Community” as well as in the comparative review of implementation of UNSCR 1325 – Women, Peace and Security in the Western Balkans. Publications include Security Community Building in the Western Balkans, (with Filip Ejdus), Ashgate 2014, Odanović, Gorana and Stojanović, Gajić Sonja (eds.) (2013): Women, peace and security in the Western Balkans, (edited with Gorana Odanović), Belgrade: BCSP, and Stojanović, Sonja and (eds.) (2010): Gender and Security Sector Reform in Serbia, (edited with Kathrin Quesada), Belgrade: BCSP.
Articles Authored
Coordination and coherence in EU local capacity building (5 November 2018) - Deliverable 6.2 focuses particularly on coordination and coherence between international actors and local actors in the context of the implementation of local capacity building programmes in the Western Balkans and the Horn of Africa. While problems related to a lack of coherence have impinged upon the efforts of every international organisation and country involved in capacity building, in the case of large international organisations like the EU, internal coherence represents a specific challenge.
Deliverables
DL 5.1
Report on EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the Horn of Africa and Western Balkans
Authors: Peen Rodt, A., J. Tvilling, P.H. Zartsdahl, M. Ignatijevic, S. Stojanovic Gajic, S. Simons, K. Abdi, E. Gillette, N. Habbida, J. Berglund and V. Fernandez Arguedas
Lead Institution: Royal Danish Defence College
Published: 30 October 2017
[PDF, ~1.5MB; click to access]
DL 6.2
International capacity building in the Western Balkans and the Horn of Africa: Lessons on coherence and coordination
Authors: Algar-Faria, G., A.E. Juncos, T. Edmunds, S. Stojanovic Gajic, K. Đokić, E. Plänitz, K. Abdi and S. Simons
Lead Institution: University of Bristol
Published: 24 May 2018
[PDF, ~0.5MB; click to access]
Working Papers
Title: Capacity Building for Security Sector Reform in Kosovo
Author: Sonja Stojanović Gajić
Year: 2017
Month: September
Series: EU-CIVCAP Working Papers
No.: 02–17
Pages: 1–41
[PDF, ~0.3MB; click to access]
Work Packages
WP4: REACT
European and international responses to conflict early response
WP5: EXECUTE
EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the Western Balkans and Horn of Africa
WP6: SUPPORT
Local capacity-building strategies
WP7: LEARN
Lessons identified, lessons learned, and best practices
WP8: SHARE
Dissemination and communication
Institutional Affiliation
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy
As well as being one of the leading independent think-tanks in the Western Balkans, BCSP has considerable experience conducting research on gender and security governance, including in relation to peacebuilding.
EU-CIVCAP 