The State Intelligence Service (SHISH) has published a part of the 2021 report, which, among other things, highlights the activity of foreign intelligence in Albania and the region. 

The report of SHISH states that Albania continues to remain in the focus of some foreign intelligence services. Among other things, the SHISH report states that Propaganda and misinformation are the most used instruments by unfriendly foreign intelligence services to promote strategic foreign policy interests, to influence the perception of public opinion regarding their role in international security issues, and to be presented as credible alternatives to Western actors in the region. 

Part of the SHISH report: 

As a NATO member country, contributing to global peace and security, but also aspiring to become part of the large European family, Albania continues to be the focus of several foreign intelligence services. 

At the center of their activity for gathering information continue to remain internal developments in the field of politics and security, the pro-Western position of our country in relation to policies in international relations, relations with countries in the region and strategic allies, military exercises within Alliance and defense projects. 

In other countries of the region, unfriendly intelligence services have focused their activities on amplifying inter-ethnic and inter-religious issues, promoting and supporting internal destabilizing factors, maintaining the status quo in relation to integration processes and deriving benefits from its role in relation to the West. 

Hybrid activities of non-Western actors have increased in the region, but also in our country, although not to the same extent as in the countries of the region. These types of activities are becoming more evident as countries make progress in democratization and integration processes. 

Open and unresolved interstate and interethnic issues have turned the region into a fertile ground for hybrid activities of global and regional actors, opponents of the pro-Western path, to achieve their goals of expanding influence, deepening disputes between countries inthe region and impeding progress in resolving these issues. 

The access of these actors to the Western Balkans region involves the use of a wide range of open and hidden tools, combining intelligence activities with diplomacy, economic pressure, cyber attacks, the use of online space for propaganda, disinformation and news fabrication activities with the aim of discouraging and undermining the political and social cohesion between the countries of the region, between the Albanian factor in the region, influencing decision-making, both in the field of foreign policy and defense. 

Propaganda and misinformation are the most used instruments by unfriendly foreign intelligence services to promote strategic foreign policy interests, to influence public perception of their role in international security affairs, and to was presented as credible alternatives to Western actors in the region. 

In this regard, certain segments of civil society and academia, language and culture centers, journalists, print, visual and online media, as well as social networks, are among the categories used and exploited by these actors to achieve their objectives.