Balkans Come to the Fore

... no Alliance soldiers on its territory. But peacekeeping missions and NATO military bases have been stationed in the “problem” countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo is a few dozen kilometers away from the Macedonian border. So these republics are already under an “obtrusive custody” of the Alliance. Generally speaking, NATO will consider the possibility of further expansion in the Balkans. The reasons behind this are as follows: putting an important part of Europe under its control, eliminating some “blank points” on the map, and making the fragmented space of the region manageable and uniform. To join NATO, countries ...