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Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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NATO: Two in, two up, and three out (for a while)At the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, the alliance decided to send invitations to Croatia and Albania to become next members. Two other states, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, will see their status increased, so their hopes for future invitation become clearer. Three other states, Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia, didn't receive invitations for different reasons: they hope this is only temporarily, but for some of them it may be not. The West in Europe has used two different organizations of peaceful expansion to the east, the European Union and NATO. In a sense, these are complementary organizations, offering western-elite club 'cards of membership' either in security or in economy and all other forms of cooperation. A significant part of the Central and East European countries are already both EU and NATO members. Another part, also significant, predominantly from the former Yugoslavia and the former USSR, are still missing. Some of them don't even apply for membership, because they feel more comfortable by integrating alternative organizations, offered by Russia. Some, however, are trying to enter the western clubs. Being 'western' is far more than putting a blue flag with a compass (for NATO), or stars in circle (for EU) on the roofs of some public buildings. It's mainly playing by certain rules and adopting certain values, which go as far as protecting private property and allowing the citizens to defend their rights in courts of law. In that sense, being 'western' is like sending a powerful signal to the world that a certain country is already considered to represent these values. That's why the West takes more seriously certain unpleasant facts from public life if they happen within the West. Countries that cannot support been put under constant public and international scrutiny shouldn't apply to either EU or NATO. So, who are the lucky candidates that are invited to NATO? These are Albania and Croatia, two Balkan countries, one of them a former Yugoslav republic. If everything goes as planned, they will sit around the table and make their voice heard as early as 2010. For Croatia, this invitation was long overdue, for Albania it still seems premature, no more than a symbolic gesture toward a country that so far plays very well the role of a 'firefighter' for the Albanian ethnic communities in some neighboring countries. Beyond that, it can be hard to believe that Albania can possible make any difference in the global security situation in Europe, and even less outside Europe. On the other hand, this country isn't under constant military threat, and being a NATO member may put an additional and unnecessary pressure over the public institutions in order to make them look and to behave 'western'. The decision on Montenegro and on Bosnia and Herzegovina is rather bureaucratic and not political, they still remain outside NATO, but their prospects for membership go up, so by 2010 they may be the next countries to receive invitations to join the club. As for the three refused, so far, countries, the reasons vary. Macedonia has still to settle down the problem that its name creates in Greece; solving this problem may take months or many more years. As for Ukraine and Georgia, the strenuous relations between the West and Russia are the main cause for NATO to remain rather cautious. Officially NATO would like to see them as full members, but not at any price, either political or economic. The summit of NATO confirmed an unpleasant truth about the organization that became obvious during the first 'eastern' enlargement in the late 1990s; NATO invites first not those that need it most, but those that don't.
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