How to Build a Better Balkans

"National Interest"

The renewed US interest in the Balkans partly reflects a wish that wars in this region remain a thing of the past. Equally important, the United States is hoping that the future of the Western Balkans will be a contributor to peace and prosperity in the transatlantic community.

Complaints that the United States is giving up on Europe, and are indifferent to the fate of the region, are simply wrong. However, Washington can do far more than the desired thinking, to transform the Western Balkans from a "barrel" into a region that radiates progress. Rather than representing fragmentation and division, the region should be an example of integration.

Breaking the Balkans out of chaos

Just over a year from now, it will be another anniversary: the 20th anniversary of the end of the recent Balkan war. While the region has not suffered from an open conflict during this period, the Western Balkans still remains a troubled country, often cited as the most fragile part of Europe. "Almost two decades after the war, this is not peace," claimed a human rights activist. "The Albanian and Serbian issues are not closed in the Balkans; is Israel and Palestine of Europe ".

The current state of the Western Balkan states makes many people nervous. In an age of anxiety across Europe, it is not helpful if its most problematic parts begin to shake. Problems in the Balkans, refuse to disappear for two reasons: money and geography.

The economies of the region are damaging the rest of Europe.

The good news is that the region is the main destination for vacations. The bad news is that the Balkans are a place where money is sold very much. Located between the Adriatic and the Black Sea, the Balkans is a crossroad between the North and the South. and East and West.

Few parts of Europe have such a position.

Apart from the United States and the European Union, major players include Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey and China. In addition, neighboring neighbors of the region, including Greece, Austria and Croatia, have their interests to protect.

Of great importance is how money and influence are used. Among the main concerns are the active measures on the part of the Russians to prevent EU integration, hindering NATO expansion, and to ensure the dominance of Russian power. Damaged by unsustainable economies and foreign interventions, the Western Balkans face two ongoing challenges.

The first is security. The second is the opening up of scarce jobs, and the creation of wealth. In the area of security, the region lives under the constant shadow of unresolved conflicts, which although not threatening to escalate in open war, create separation relations that undermine stability and regional integration.

The main concern is the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the unresolved final status agreement between Kosovo and Serbia remains problematic. The second major weakness of the region is the lack of economic development and integration.

Moreover, inequalities in the region are worrying. Economically, Serbia is overcoming its neighbors in economic performance. This creates imbalances that could further destabilize the region. Countervailing impacts to address these challenges have faded, while threats have diminished - a vegetative state that simply allows the "tumor" to expand and not the opposite.

Once, many people believed that EU membership would solve all these challenges. This is no longer true.

The road to EU membership has proved to be stubbornly slow. Moreover, the EU's engagement with the region suffered a shameful stumbling block at the recent London conference, which, according to many evidence, did not show any progress. An additional challenge is that if the region does not implement reforms that would really liberalize the economy (thus boosting growth and job creation), EU accession would only encourage the removal of the population and capital into other parts of Europe.

"The First America" and the Balkans

A strong transatlantic partnership is a key element of the US National Security Strategy. The latest development the United States would like to see is a Europe destabilized by Balkan problems, as it was in the 1990s.

US officials, including the vice president and secretaries of state and defense, have already expressed America's great interest in playing a stronger role in the region. The Western Balkans can play a key role in America's vision of a stronger transatlantic community.

An integrated and prosperous region can help build the foundation of a stronger Europe. In addition to the security provided by NATO and European community cohesion, the United States can help foster a range of bilateral relations that will become a powerful economic growth engine, a corridor to secure free market energy independence and a truly building trust for European security.

These bilateral relations would not replace the EU or NATO. Rather, they would provide a foundation for strong and secure states-nations that would make these alliances stronger.

5-point plan

Craving and building a better Balkans are two different things. In the end, the United States must be seriously engaged. The elements exist in the US strategy, but Washington has to move faster.

America should actively promote a balance of regional security, economic growth and responsible governance throughout the Western Balkans and the surrounding countries. This is the best medicine against internal wars in the region, but also the harmful influence of external actors.

Energy

It is not enough for the United States to support the construction of a North-South energy corridor. Washington should help to make it a reality. The US must continue to seriously contest the construction of the "Nord Stream II" gas pipeline and provide strong support for the Three Seas Initiative. Moreover, Washington needs to support the development of nuclear energy in the region, and the construction of a southern, non-Russia gas corridor.

Economic Investments

The Private Investment Corporation across the Atlantic, USAID and the Millennium Corporation, are all active in the region. However, the region needs US private investment.

Governance

New investments in the Western Balkans will not make it a better place without a responsible government. The United States should focus constructively on the elements of governance affecting economic freedom, including combating corruption, strengthening rule of law, and reducing public sector employment, reducing taxes and public debt.

Safety

Washington needs to continue on two paths at the same time in the Balkans - NATO enlargement (in particular, Macedonia's NATO accession), and fostering bilateral security cooperation with the United States and the Balkan countries and its neighbors them.

Strategy

The United States must continue to implement a global strategy that incites strategic rivals - including Russia, Iran and China - to ending destabilizing external policies that undermine US interests.

Exercise of pressure on them will ultimately lead Russia and China to qualify as a free, sustainable, and prosperous Western Balkans as a good opportunity to earn more profitable profits in the economic sphere than a poor market within their sphere of influence. / "National Interest"

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