By Albert Rakipi
Today, the Atlantic Alliance officially invited Albania to become its member. Albania will join NATO, 16 years after the fall of the most extreme dictatorship in the former Eastern bloc. After the fall of Communism, the membership in NATO is the second most important historic event. Albanians consider NATO membership a return to their natural home. Forty yeas ago, Albania was the first country to abandon the Warsaw Pact, albeit not for ideological reasons. The departure from the Warsaw Pact was accompanied by a “neutrality” policy, which in reality was a self-imposed extreme isolation that lasted until 1992.
In 1992, immediately after it came in power, the first anti-communist government declared the membership in European Union and NATO as its top priority. In 1992, the membership was only a wonderful dream, which was believed to become a reality rather soon. It was going to take more than a decade and a half of a difficult, and sometimes controversial, economic and political transition to prepare Albania for membership into NATO.
During the transition, neither the political elite, nor the Albanian society had any dilemma or doubt about joining the Alliance. In Albania, the support for NATO membership was consistently spectacular compared to the NATO support in any other East European country, NATO member or candidate to join the Alliance. There is a fundamental explanation for that support. Albanians associate the membership in NATO and the European Union with the Western identity. Albanians consider the membership in NATO as a clear and unequivocal evidence of the re acceptance of their Western identity. Alliances with the Communist East were an aberration that should be forgotten once and forever. From another perspective, Albania’s preparation to join NATO and the European Union was and still remains the driving force behind the state-building process in the country.
What is the impact of the invitation received yesterday in Bucharest? First, from the security point of view, although Albania was de facto part of the Euro-Atlantic security structures and acted as if it was a member of the Alliance, membership in NATO is the final and complete investment as far as the security issues are concerned.
Although the Balkans are nowadays a more peaceful and secure region, it cannot be asserted definitively and with complete confidence that there are no more problems that can generate a new re-securitisation of the relationships between states or inside the states. Kosova is an independent state, but at least for the time being, in its northern part there is an almost frozen conflict, while in Serbia, one of the key Balkan countries, there exist uncertainty and confusion about its future. Yesterday, it was expected that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia would be invited too. The invitation did not materialize because of the disagreement with its neighbour, Greece, a member of the European Union and of NATO. Disputes exist, too, between and within other Balkan countries. However, after the NATO enlargement the Balkan disputes, the existing ones or others that can appear in the future, are going to be resolved under the new enlargement context.
Albania’s NATO membership will positively impact its development, the strengthening and even the transformation of its bilateral relations. Before both sides, the tiny Balkan country once considered as the most isolated probably in the world, and NATO and its members, considered such ties in terms of “we” and “them”.
From today on, although a small country, Albania will be part of the Euro-Atlantic family, “one of us”.
Likewise, the membership in NATO will encourage the efforts and improve the chances to join the European Union. Membership will positively impact and be beneficial to its economic development and, especially, increase foreign investments because foreign investors are going to perceive a new and different Albania. Brief and clearly, a NATO member is a well-functioning country, respecting the rule of law.
Last, but not least, the invitation extended to Albania today is going to significantly influence the domestic policies and encourage a radical transformation of the political behaviour and policymaking in Albania.
Bucharest, April 4, 2008
