Original scientific paper
Macedonia towards the EU: whether and how much prevention matters
Lidija Georgieva
Marina Mitrevska
Abstract
Since its formal independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, the Republic of Macedonia was a subject of different conflict prevention strategies utilized by numerous international institutions or particular western democracies. Trapped in the constant balancing between regional and internal challenges for peace and stability and periodically supported in its avoidance of violent scenarios, Macedonia was labelled the most successful case of conflict prevention or as a successful case of crisis prevention, later (since 2001), by the numerous international representatives. Different arguments were used in order to support such assessments. The main argument is that the violence that was experienced in other ex-Yugoslav conflicts did not emerge. Such an argument could be accepted as the essential only if the main objective of specific international institutions preventive strategies were defined as violence avoidance or management thereby supporting only restrictive preventive approach. However, to keep the country on the razor’s edge while balancing the stability by means of the instruments for operational conflict prevention could be hazardous approach. Instead, long-term strategy for structural prevention towards the region in general and towards the Republic of Macedonia in particular is required.
Keywords
Macedonia; European Union; EU; accession to the EU; conflict prevention
Hrčak ID:
6644
URI
Publication date:
1.10.2004.
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