relation to the US, EU member countries and countries of the region. Also, BiH will need to be more proactive in existing international police organizations. 1.3. EU and NATO partnership and membership as BiH’s security objectives The enlargement of the EU and NATO are the most important international processes for BiH. By the same token, rapprochement and the eventual accession are also among the most important national and security objectives of BiH. BiH shares and fully upholds the values and objectives on which the EU and NATO are based. Since their establishment, these organizations have been instrumental to maintaining peace, stability, social progress, human rights and economic growth. The links between these two organizations and the complementary nature of their mechanisms and procedures in the field of military and political cooperation and security have become more prominent and strong, across the systems. The common European Security and Defence Policy is based on direct cooperation with NATO and does not challenge the autonomy of the countries involved. To BiH, membership in the EU and NATO will provide a unique historical opportunity for safeguarding and strengthening democracy, protecting independence, establishing a fully secure environment, as well as unlimited potentials for economic progress. Geostrategically, BiH is located between the lines of communication with areas whose inherent instability can affect its own stability. This is particularly true with regard to the Southern Mediterranean basin, North Africa, Middle East, and the Caucuses. As a consequence of crises, conflicts, high population growth and the depletion of energy resources, these regions suffer from instability which overspills into Europe, in particular its parts that can be considered weak links, including Bosnia and Herzegovina with its unfavorable economic and security situation, worsened by the transition. Economic uncertainties, corruption, negative demographic changes, reduction in active population, and a high unemployment rate all together create a fertile soil for all kinds of organized crime, money laundering, terrorism and the financing of terrorism. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical or biological, generation of refugee crises, ethnic conflicts or violations of human rights are just a small part of the spectrum of developments that the phenomenon of globalization brings along. The international community therefore strives towards creating supranational capabilities to respond to globalization challenges. Terrorism is a global threat and its consequences underline the importance of the principle of indivisible security. After the attacks on the US on September 11th, terrorism became a global challenge, and the International Antiterrorist Coalition led by the US, that is to say international cooperation, is the only appropriate response to this development. For all the above reasons, BiH considers cooperation to be of utmost importance, bilateral and regional, same as its involvement in the work of international organizations such as the UN, OSCE, EC, CoE, WTO, RCC, RACVIAC, MARRI, SECI, DICAF, etc. Bosnia and Herzegovina sees the UN as an international umbrella organization capable of not only catering to the collective security but also of conducting preventive diplomatic actions, peace operations and implementing other peace and security building measures at global level. The OSCE is the staple of the European cooperative security, and its field missions contribute to the propagation of security and highest international standards of democracy. Both organizations together invest efforts in developing the tenets of 6