Implementing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace, and Security in practice is emerging as a priority for Albanian security politics , in which the Government of Albania is endeavouring to act by increasing compliance with the norms promoted by the Resolution. This article reflects on the implementation of the UNSCR 1325 by focusing on the discourse on mainstreaming the women, peace and security norms in Albanian society. It finds that the UNSCR 1325 contributed to the increase of gender-related content in Albanian political, academic and civil society elite discourse, albeit selectively. Albanian political, academic and civil society actors appear to have been less responsive to the responsibilities of the UNSCR 1325, predictably due to the fact that Albania is not a conflict or post-conflict country, the status of which the Resolution primarily addresses. In conditions that Albania has been more responsive, the focus has been more on issues of gender equality in general rather than being guided by the specific norms of the UNSCR 1325.

Lack of economic development, unemployment and lack of work-life balance between woman and men has been one of the main challenges of Western Balkan countries. Their fragile internal political and economic structure has made external actors be very powerful in shaping national policies. In the last fifteen years, European Union has been the main promoter of reforms that can bring the countries of the region closer in line with the EU. The main goal of this paper was to firstly look at the EU gender equality policy in the Western Balkans that applies to Albania as well, and assess its compatibility with the real concerns of Albanian woman. Secondly, the study measured the impact of the first policy, i.e. women inclusion in the labor market, on the economic growth of Albania. This research employed a quantitative methodology based on surveys and a regression analysis. Surveys were conducted with 537 female in Albania clustered mainly according to age and geographical location. Regression analysis was based on official statistical data of the women employment and annual real growth of GDP of Albania in a range of ten years. The results showed that Albanian women are mostly concerned with the lack of economic development and their expectation is that the EU accession policies should primarily address that. In addition to that, the study found out that there exist a direct and positive relationship between women inclusion in the labor market and economic growth. Therefore, EU gender equality agenda covers the main needs of Albanian women as women employment means higher economic growth and less inequality that are factors of economic development.

This study explores the status of peace education and its correlation to student perceptions of peace in social science curricula in Albanian universities. The study finds that social science programmes in Albania offer varying coverage of peace education topics. Using quantitative surveys of 460 social science university students, the study finds evidence for a positive understanding of peace. Employing a Pearson's correlation analysis, the study finds a lack of support for the hypothesis that the prevalence of peace topics in the curricula to which students are exposed significantly explains students’ perceptions of peace. The implications of the study are that Albanian curricula and students affirm a positive understanding of peace, yet more research is needed to understand what factors impact student perceptions of peace and how they may be leveraged to further peace education and overall peace dividends in Albania and beyond.

In the last decades, democracies have been in decline. They have suffered for a long time from the rise of populism and nationalism and are lately struggling with the consequences of the global pandemic, COVID-19. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of defending and preserving democracies under the threat of both external and internal destabilizing factors that can lead to regime changes. It has had a significant impact on democratic freedoms and rights. Moreover, it has also raised concerns in terms of countries’ abilities to face the challenges that come as a result of the pandemic and which threaten the existence of liberal democracies. In this paper, we argue that when individual liberties are threatened and negatively impacted by a crisis, consolidated democracies which embody such liberties, may experience a shift back to semi-consolidated, autocratic regimes and so on. In addition to that, the presence of a crisis in the equation between individual liberties and collective good, will result in the latter outweighing the former, with the potential to trigger regime change.