The Euro_atlantic integration of the Republic of Macedonia is on top of its political agenda. In November 2005 Macedonia received the Eu candidate status, at the samet time Macedonia is hoping to become a NATO member latest in 2008. Taking into consideration the progress and efforts made in the field of NATO accession, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung published this study by Mr. Nano Ruzin, the current Ambassador and Chief of Mission of Macedonia to NATO.

From a standing point of present perceptions, taking into consideration the beginnings and following its development up to today, it is indeed a privilege for all the states-partners to the Alliance to be a member of this eminent club called NATO. The benefits are multi-dimensional, but the way forward to full-fledged membership is also hard and filled with numerous reforms, sacrifices, planning, self-discipline, extensive and long-term planning of military budgets, downsizing of their armies and reservists.

But, is the Alliance in a need of so many new members? Some of the opponents to the further enlargement believe that „already with the first, and especially with the second round of enlargement of the Alliance, the coherence and efficiency of the military organization has weakened, and it would continue in the future, while its political influence would still remain strong“ (Charles Grant, Centre for European Reform-London).

However, Mr. Ruzin believes that the possibility for an enlarged NATO to lose its military power is not founded, since the new members started their transformations, and participation in the peace-keeping forces and crises management forces with great enthusiasm. Indeed, after their accession to NATO, the new members showed many weaknesses than it was anticipated at the time the invitations were sent, but the developments in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq refuted all those sceptical about the enlargement. Mr Ruzin further formulates the following thesis:

First: the debate about the rationalization and modernization process of the Alliance and the position of the future new members in these processes should continue with great transparency, without any taboo and with absolute openness;

Second: the future efficiency of NATO will depend both on the performances by the old and the new and future members of the Alliance. Ever since the very beginning of ’2000 the Alliance realized that the performances of the first three new members were beyond the expectations. A similar story was repeated with the new seven members from Prague. This will be probably repeated with the capacities of the A-3 members. Therefore, prior to the invitation and after granting the membership status, even greater assistance is required to the present and future aspirants. Mr Ruzin believes that is in fact how Macedonia read the message and promises given by the President Bush to the Prime Minister Buckovski. RM needs assistance to fully prepare its army and defence for more efficient inter-operational projections with the Alliance. However, Mr. Ruzin stresses that Macedonia should not demonstrate indifference, dilemmas or weakness due to such position, since as Ronald Asmus said “it should not be forgotten that some of the old NATO members show serious deficiencies and most of the weaknesses of the Alliance come from the older NATO members”. This, on the other hand, doesn’t mean that RM should go to the other extreme and become dependent on foreign assistance and foreign advisers.

Third: the central issue regarding the NATO future and its efficiency is not the number of its states but the essential NATO goals. This issue does not come up from the compensation of the future raison d'etre of the Alliance. One should not forget that during the ’90-s, the status of an alliance between USA and Western Europe intended to defend itself from Soviet threat was altered into an alliance of USA and the entire Europe, hand in hand with its former big rival from the cold war – Russia, and was re-oriented towards the conflict prevention of the new threats. It is understandable that with terrorist attacks NATO cannot afford to have a peripheral role or focus its operations only on the European zone, and according to Mr. Ruzin this dynamic must be followed by the new and future members in an integrated manner, including the Republic of Macedonia.