Serbia and the NATO Partnership for Peace Program
Abstract
This thesis explores Serbia's relationship with NATO, focusing on two questions: How can Serbia and NATO benefit from the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program? How can Serbia identify its needs as a consumer of security assistance and also actively contribute to regional security under the overarching PfP program? Serbia's main problems include the following: (1) weak civilian control of the military and intelligence services, (2) inadequate legal basis and legislation for an effective transformation of the military and intelligence services, and (3) a deeply troubled heritage stemming from the period when Slobodan Milosevic was in power. This heritage includes war crimes indictments against former military commanders, intelligence chiefs, state and political leaders, as well as the unresolved final status of the Kosovo province, where for the past seven years the ethnic Albanian population has sought political independence from Serbia. Serbia's PfP membership can most directly benefit state authorities by providing expert support for solving the first two problems. These problems can be resolved with a clearly defined security policy and effective mechanisms for implementing it. However, Serbian participation in the NATO PfP program cannot solve the third security issue, because NATO's role with regard to war criminals and Kosovo's final status is to support the United Nations. But PfP membership will provide an additional forum for governments to openly discuss, as equals, issues like the territorial integrity of Serbia and war crime convictions. The thesis evaluates post-Milosevic Serbia from October 5, 2000 through the end of 2006, which is divided into three periods.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA480135
Entities
People
- Nikolay T. Kotsev
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School