Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Western Balkans: The View of the Devil’s Advocate

Abstract

In this short essay, I will take the position of the “Devil’s Advocate.” I am not doing so, however, simply out of a contrarian urge. Rather, I am doing so aiming to provoke fresh thinking, to furnish new ideas, and to bring forth new, courageous commitments for the integration of the nations of the Western Balkans into the Euro-Atlantic community. Purely as a coincidence, the Devil’s Advocate on this occasion is writing from Albania. But the challenges of integration are to a lesser or greater extent faced by other countries of the region. The Devil’s Advocate may surprise some of his readers with his view of what represents challenge number one: Free and fair elections. In Albania, the former communists returned to power in 1997 through a violent revolution. This was a first in post-Cold War Europe. Since then, they have not legitimized their hold on power through a free vote. According to international observers, all rounds of elections have been beset by problems. Currently, Albanian society faces an extreme polarization within the population, of the type more associated with Latin America. Extremely great amounts of money circulates in the hands of the very small number of people in power, most of it dirty money. Since these elites are appealing to a very poor electorate, members of the ‘establishment’ can buy the votes of the people in three parallel ways: they can buy off the voters; they can buy off the commissioners; and they can buy off observers. In addition, there appear to be other ways to manipulate the outcome of the elections as well. In light of this, the country is threatened by at least three dangers: