Irena Rajchinovska Pandeva, Associate Professor, Iustinianus Primus Law Faculty, University “Ss Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje
Due to the extended transition, inability to establish political democracy, perpetual failure to reconcile issues on the state-ethnicity-religion triad and enduring conundrum of EU and NATO enlargement, a perception is created that the Balkan is a secluded pocket of instability and insecurity in Europe. The foreign policy towards the Balkan region has been articulated and dimensioned according to that perception and over the past decades it included various forms of intervention. These externalities have resulted to the creation of a new discourse named stabilitocracy. In the Macedonian regional peculiarity is further marked by country specifics related to the resolving of the name dispute, ending of political polarity based on competing projects on national identity and ensuring an inclusive society. This is, without a doubt, a formidable list of problems that raise an equally arduous list of questions, and its answers are not easily found. The lecture aims at setting the contours on future developments on Macedonia’s path, bearing in mind these three most daring issues and anticipating viable outcomes: internationalism, regionalism and seclusion.