Abstract
Criminal groups in the Western Balkans are influential non-state actors which informally regulate illegal markets, provide protection, and establish strategic partnerships with political and economic elites. They operate outside, alongside, and sometimes within state structures, and often through robust cross-border networks. They are quite flexible and adapt quickly to the evolving practices of law enforcement agencies, border regimes, and changing regional contexts. In this sense, criminal groups contribute to the emergence of a hybrid security environment in which formal and informal actors coexist and interact, and in doing so, they undermine state governance. One of the greatest challenges for such societies is the manifestation of the so-called “captured state,” which corrupts the justice system and renders institutions powerless to deal with organised crime. Organised crime is often viewed primarily through the prism of law enforcement and the judiciary. This paper therefore seeks to move beyond this by analysing criminal groups in the Western Balkans from a different perspective – namely, how they function as actors of informal power and their impact on security governance, territorial control and cross-border stability. In this regard, these dynamics are examined in the context of state-oriented approaches to regional security and inter-state trust in fragile and post-transition contexts, such as South-Eastern Europe and, more specifically, the Western Balkans. In particular, the paper explores how weak institutional capacity, corruption and fragmented regional cooperation serve as enablers that these groups exploit to establish robust and flexible transnational networks. The findings of the analysis in this research suggest that the fight against organised crime in the Western Balkans, in addition to stronger law enforcement and the rule of law, requires institutional reforms, governance-oriented approaches and a deeper understanding of the political and governance roles that criminal groups play within regional security.