Die Länder des westlichen Balkan auf dem Weg in die NATO. Vom Krisenmanagement zur Integration
The Path of the Western Balkan States to NATO. From Crisis Management to a Policy of Integration

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the strategy, critera and evolution of NATO’s enlargement towards the Western Balkans, a topic largely neglected in the research literature thus far. Based on an in-depth discussion of the specific design of NATO’s enlargement process, particularly the criteria for accession and the socialization strategy, the author investigates the process up to the present, including the recent accession of Albania and Croatia. He presents the state of affairs for individual countries, including Serbia and Kosovo, and draws conclusions for the future. The author argues that a paradigm change from crisis management to integration has been taking place since 1999. Secondly, he maintains that the war in Georgia in 2008 has triggered a shift of priorities with regard to the Western Balkans. And thirdly, he expects NATO’s enlargement strategy in the Western Balkans to slow down in the medium-term, due to the grave structural impediments faced by almost all the successor states of the former Yugoslavia.

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