Macedonia’s alignment to the NATO Security Community: Discussing Current implications 59 pages, pdf  Download Back

Macedonia’s alignment to the NATO Security Community: Discussing Current implications

In the present study a constructivist analytical framework has been chosen to measure the degree of alignment of Macedonia to NATO. For this purpose, the pluralistic security community theory by Adler and Barnett (1998) is applied, offering the possibility to assign Macedonia to a phase of security community creation with NATO (nascent, ascendant, mature). Deriving from the theoretical construct, the following analytical categories have been established: creation of a collective identity, dependable expectations of peaceful change, collective actions and existence of mutual trust. Moreover, the level of institutionalization of each of these categories is assessed. The analysis showed that a collective identity between NATO and Macedonia is created. However, the degree of institutionalization of liberal norms in Macedonia needs to increase. Dependable expectations of peaceful change and collective actions are given, and their level of institutionalization is high. On this basis, mutual trust is created; hence the Macedonian alignment to the NATO security community has been allocated in the ascendant phase. Concluding, a further increase towards a mature phase can only be archived through a higher level of institutionalization. Furthermore, the sustainability and prospects of the security community creation process are conditional to domestic developments in Macedonia.