have already indicated and presented some, but it is worth highlighting the most significant among them. Therefore, as previously stated in one paper by authors Mitrevska and Stanarević, it is important to emphasize that in the conditions of a globalized and interdependent society, the complexity of the concept of security culture is reflected in several important concep­tual frameworks: • “ the versatility/multifaceted concept of culture, but also of security; • demarcation of safety culture and security culture; • reflection of key cultural elements(policies, technology, and people) in the security culture; • the relationships between national culture, corporate culture, and se­curity culture; • hard and soft security culture; • vertical/hierarchical levels and horizontal/sectoral layers of security culture; • national traditions/styles of security culture(in diplomacy, in man­agement); • security culture in different phases of response to dangers/threats: prevention, monitoring, control, remediation; • what is the“hard core” of a security culture and what are derived concepts; • entities and institutions which are crucial in building a security culture; • ways of development of security culture(standards, control, educa­tion, commitment.” (Mitrevska, Stanarević, 2023) In the following chapter, as previously indicated/mentioned, we will present the example of two countries of the Western Balkans- how all our find­ings on culture, security and security culture are projected onto institutional practices, strategies and policies and define democratic values ​t​ hat are vital for the functioning of institutions in a healthy and stable society. Analysis of Elements for Comparison The inspiration for the monograph, which is presented to readers and jointly developed by the authors using the example of Serbia and North Macedo­nia, is the publication: National Security Cultures – Patterns of Global Gov­ernance, edited by Emil J. Kirchner& James Sperling. In the introductory 58 NATIONAL SECURITY CULTURES- A VIEW FROM THE BALKANS