Tom Hashimoto
With Jonathan Easton and Marigona Dulaku
One year has passed since Albania joined NATO together with Croatia. Some argue about new difficulties which Albania and NATO are about to encounter, while others argue about achievements in the newly integrated regional security of the Western Balkans. Today, Albania’s next goal seems to be the European integration, and the security dimension of the integration will be discussed alongside with the one-year benchmark of our NATO membership. Once, we have asked ourselves what “Europe” means to Albania; it is time to ask ourselves what “European security” means to Albania.
The Western Balkans will not be fully integrated into the European security system as long as the Kosovo question remains unsolved. This issue is particularly critical when the EU policy-making is moderated by the Spanish Presidency of 2010 and the Cypriot Presidency of 2012. Both Spain and Cyprus, unfortunately, have not yet recognized Kosovo as an independent state, and hence, it potentially undermines the EU’s ability to compose a cohesive security doctrine in the Western Balkans. Surely, the role of the Presidency of the Council of the EU is limited in terms of the post-Lisbon European Foreign Policy. Yet, any Presidencies can easily delay the Western Balkan integration into the European security system due to the lack of unanimous recognition of Kosovo by the EU Member States. As a nation who shares the ethnic origin with Kosovo, two tasks should be on our security agenda.
First, Albania should be the voice of the Western Balkans in Europe. We need to continue its effort to promote the recognition of Kosovo among the EU Member States, so that the EU can maintain a collective and comprehensive approach towards the region. Thanks to the Slovenian Presidency of 2008, the Kosovar declaration of independence was relatively welcomed by the EU despite the above mentioned incoherency among the Member States. After all, the EU did not fall apart over its foreign policy towards the Western Balkans, and we should closely observe and maintain this trend.
Of course, this task does not mean we should alienate Serbia. On the contrary, we should maintain friendly and reasonable relations with Serbia regardless of the bitter history on our crossing points in the past. This notion leads us to the second task for Albania: we should also be the voice of Europe in the Western Balkans. Through NATO accession, we have begun to learn not only techniques, but also philosophy of security. We know that the security of the Balkans cannot be maintained by the Albanians alone. We need everyone over the differences of ethnicity, religion, language or culture: that is the true “European” integration. It is the idea of togetherness accompanied by socio-political enlightenment that unites us in Europe. This “Europe,” therefore, is the realm of ideological commonwealth, and the pivotal Western Balkans – a blank on the European security system surrounded by Greece and Italy – must digest this philosophy. We are certainly capable of supporting and accelerating this process.
