Camp in Plav – Montenegro with Young, Smart and Enthusiast people – REACT 2013 Montenegro

I’m always in big favor when it comes to share, discuss and to spend six days in camp with young, smart, enthusiast, academical, non-academical, scholars, military, history critics and politicians in a venue in wild beauty of Montenegro, near the Plavsko lake in Plav. The location of the camp was in a such a beautiful area. My eyes could not stop looking for something, such as either it was the top of the mountain, or the Plavsko lake, or even the green hills and valleys.

Anyhow, let me return to the main point here. Firstly I will like to share a couple of history background of Regional Euro Atlantic Camp REACT, organized by ALFA Center Montenegro.

First REACT camp took place in 2008, since then it takes place every year, until now six years. The best and intriguing part of this camp is that each year the venue of the event is in different place, therefore the participants have a change to meet the beauty of Montenegro. The idea in behalf of the organizers is very good, and I do support them in this matter. Sometimes Montenegro routs could be a very heavy for the drivers, however still this beauty should be exposed to the rest of the world. Additionally, each year the number of participants varies depending on the applications. However, this year there where participants from 25 different countries, which make is in total 75 participants from elsewhere, such as, Balkans countries, Ex-Soviet Union countries, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and many others.

Turning to the agenda of REACT 2013, it was quite densely deployed, with lectures, panel discussions, etc. Although it was heavy still the best side was the picnic adventures and cultural evenings. Please feel free to see the pictures below of the post.

Secondly, I would like to take a time to concentrate more on the issue of cyber security. During the event the speakers where representative of governments from sixteen countries, as well as NGOs, media, students, researchers, among the others. Mostly, the topics where concentrating on intention to see the pros and cons of join to NATO, where indeed the countries from this region have in mind. However, when it comes to the goals of NATO, and new threats, such as cyber threats, cyber crime coupled with strategies, framework and so on, only one speaker it emphasized the importance of cyber security as one of the greatest risk now a day and in future, of course. I will not delay too much, as you might all unravel it was the USA Deputy Chief of Mission in Montenegro, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones was very precise in his speech, moreover he mentioned the importance of infrastructure as well as the stability and security in Balkan region. I would like to cite one of the lectures, Mr. Petric he said “Together we are stronger!”. How the days go by, I was just wondering and always trying to ask questions about the cyber security, and the importance of this issue, however, most of the speakers where no that specialized or somehow not interested of in fact important unit of integration requirements in NATO.

Additionally, I was a moderator to a topic Kosovo open or close? The question was which topics, fields are close or open, regarding the Kosovo as a new country in the region.

In short summary, please feel free to see the pictures below and I hope that in future to REACT Camp we will have much more discussions and panels and topics about the new threats that we are facing. Likewise, I always say, no matter how much we pour money in infrastructure and security, still the weakest chain will be the human factor, because it is not a aware of the importance of cyber security. Consequently, we will have to keep in mind that this issue and importance of cyber security is in benefits to wide security, economy and political aspects, by process of joining and integrating the region to the path of NATO.