1. INTRODUCTION The dramatic change in the European security architecture after Russia's aggression against Ukraine has brought back to the fore the strengthening of the security mechanisms in the Western Balkans, which is widely seen as one of the most vulnerable regions when it comes to the Russian subversive interventions. The United States and the European Union have increased their presence in an attempt to resolve the conflicts inherited from the past, while urging for more intra-regional cooperation, including security cooperation. In this policy paper we investigate: • the current state of security cooperation in the Western Balkans and; • the support of the general public in the Western Balkans for security cooperation. METHOD The paper is divided in four sections. In the first section, we attempt to conceptualize cooperative security as a form of cooperation that promotes stability and principled based cooperation to establish confidence building mechanisms and collectively tackle threats such as transnational organized crime, cyber threats, climate change and environmental degradation, border control, pandemics, etc. In the second section we review the state of security cooperation in the Western Balkans, the mechanisms in place and if those qualify as‘cooperative security’. In the third section, the paper analyzes findings from surveys conducted in Albania and the Western Balkans countries about the perceptions of security threats from the general public and their attitudes toward deeper regional security cooperation. In the final section, the paper provides some policy recommendations that could help policymakers build on positive perceptions of the public across the Western Balkans to intensify regional security cooperation. We have used data provided mainly by the fourth edition of the Albanian Security Barometer(2022) conducted in Albania by the Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance, SecuriMeter 2022, a regional survey from Regional Cooperation Council, and 2022 Western Balkans Regional Survey of International Republican Institute’s Center for Insights in Survey Research. 4