U.S. Closes “Nation-Building Era” in W. Balkans, Focuses on Cooperation, Stability and Prosperity

Western Balkans (Photo: Nevena Zaric)

The United States have officially ended their era of interventionism and state-building in the Western Balkans, says a new report to Congress submitted by the State Department, adding that the superpower will be concentrating on cooperation with the region, where the U.S. has direct security and economic interests.

“The U.S.-led nation-building era has passed. U.S. policy in the Western Balkans is not about rescue or reconstruction, but stability and mutually beneficial partnerships,” says the document titled “Report to Congress on United States Policy to Promote Regional Stability and Prosperity in the Western Balkans.”

Compiled at the behest of Congress and published on the State Department’s website, the report concludes that the efforts the U.S. invested in the region so far have contributed to creating stability and laid the foundations for a “different kind of U.S. engagement.

According to the new policy, the U.S. administration is now “focused on empowering local actors to resolve their own challenges, rather than perpetuating an overreliance on international intervention or supervision” and is “ready to support where [U.S.] involvement is wanted and advances U.S interest.”

The report asserts that “[p]romoting stability and advancing U.S. economic interests in the Western Balkans makes the United States safer, stronger, and more prosperous,” while the superpower’s new policy for the region is “focused on expanding partnerships, countering threats that affect the United States and regional stability, and increasing economic and commercial cooperation.”

The State Department further claimed that “malign actors” could capitalize on the region’s instability despite the fact that “tangible results” produced by U.S. interventionism over the past several decades, “including robust and positive relationships with all six countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

In addition to regional stability, combating the malignant influences of Russia and China and strengthening economic and trade collaboration, the report highlights as key priorities investing in the region’s energy sector and infrastructure, fighting organized crime and strengthening security cooperation.