NATO's strategy in the Balkans and its effect on regional security (1999-2020)

Abstract

     This study dealt with the topic of "NATO's strategy in the Balkans region and its impact on regional security", through three main topics: The first topic: the emergence and development of NATO, the second topic: The strategic importance of the Balkans region: The third topic in the Balkans and regional security in the region. The study raised a main question: What are the features of NATO's strategy in the Balkans? And what is the extent of its impact on regional security in that region? Through this, the study sought to achieve several objectives, including: identifying NATO’s strategy in the Balkans and its impact on regional security, clarifying the strategic importance of the Balkans and the reasons for NATO’s interest in it, and finally identifying the nature of the relationship between American interests and NATO’s strategy in this region.

  Using the "descriptive-analytical approach," the study concluded that: NATO's strategy in the Balkans included: a mixture of military and logistical support (such as support for building and strengthening the capabilities of military institutions in some Balkan countries, as well as border security, ensuring the application of the law, strategic security and combating terrorism), as well as The political and diplomatic endeavors by (NATO) to accelerate the pace of reform for the accession of the non-organized countries to the membership of the alliance, as well as by working to support the peace tracks in the areas that witnessed tensions or armed conflicts in the past years, the Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Kosovo, the Kosovo ; The countries of Europe, which suffered from the experience of civil wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, and suffered from the American marginalization of their role in maintaining the security of the Balkans and settling its explosive conflicts, today, it wants to play a more active role in protecting its regional security and strategic interests in the Balkans, both within and outside NATO.

   Therefore, the importance of this region is multifaceted, and NATO’s strategy in it stems from the desire of the United States and European members to protect the security of the Balkans from any external threat, especially the Russian threat, and to achieve peace and stability, and protect it from regional and ethnic conflicts, and everything that threatens its security and stability.