International studies, Vol. VII No. 1, 2007.
Original scientific paper
What NATO Membership Means for Croatia: an American Perspective
Leo Michel
; Institute for National Strategic Studies, Washington, DC, USA
Abstract
In November 2006 Riga Summit Declaration, the 26 Alliance heads of state and government reaffirmed that "NATO remains open to new European members under Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty." As expected, they stopped short of issuing an invitation to any of the three formally recognized aspirants - Croatia, Macedonia and Albania. They specified, however, that at their next summit in 2008, "the Alliance intends to extend further invitations to those countries who meet NATO's performance based standards and are able to contribute to Euro-Atlantic security and stability." This gives Croatia additional incentives and time to implement the reforms and restructuring needed to ensure it will be invited to join. lt also gives the Croatian public more time to understand, debate and, hopefully, actively support the responsibilities inherent in NATO membership. And it certainly is no accident that Croatia is the only aspirant to whom the Summit Declaration signals a need "to ensure that its membership aspirations are backed by stronger popular support."
Keywords
Riga Summit; Riga Summit Declaration; NATO; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
290573
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2007.
Visits: 259 *