Ten years of aspiration perception of NATO in Slovenia POLITICALPOLITICAL STATESTATE ANDAND NATONATO According to official state documents1, integration seen in a historical perspective, offering time, and mentioned that Slovenia was into NATO represents Slovenia’s basic foreign policy the chance for European nations to over- the best candidate for the next round of come the divisions of the past. NATO en- NATO enlargement. Included in her text, interest and national security priority. NATO is seen largement, as well as Slovenia’s potential however, was also a warning that Slove- as “the only efficient organisation for collective secu- membership in the Alliance, is not direct- nia should be more active in the conflict rity in the existing European security architecture”. ed against other states, including Russia. resolution process in South Eastern Eu- NATO provides collective defence to member coun- According to high representatives of rope, should continue economic liberaliza- tries, but also assumes responsibility for European Slovenia, the country was eligible for the tion, and be more open for foreign invest- security and stability in general, including “out of first round of post-Cold War NATO en- ments.3 area” operations. NATO demonstrated its efficiency largement. Slovenia fulfilled all general cri- One of the questions to be raised while teria set by the NATO Enlargement Study; analysing the document was the readi- in such a role during the Bosnian-Herzegovinian war, however, not one of the representatives ness of the Slovenian Army to join NATO. where European security structures failed to stop the spoke about defence or military criteria. It The document foresaw a lot of substantial conflict without a substantial transatlantic support. is most clear that inter-operability of activities to be carried out by the Army to The Kosovo crisis in spring 1999 was another exam- Slovenian armed forces could be a subject achieve the NATO standards and interop- ple of this kind. of serious debate in this respect. Another erability with the armed forces of NATO important issue to be addressed here, are countries. It seems the Slovenian Army According to the official view, the fun- Slovenia’s on-going disputes with its has undergone constant reform since its damental reasons for Slovenia to become neighbours, especially Croatia. Despite conception, with few tangible results. The a member of NATO are: (1) the member- this situation, there is an immanent hope content analysis revealed that the dead- ship in NATO would strengthen the securi- that NATO will primarily respect its own lines set by the document are not respect- ty of the country and contribute to its long- objective criteria, rather than take into ac- ed by different governmental agencies, in- term development; (2) the consequences count different political considerations cluding the Ministry of Defence and the of NATO membership are not estimated to about the enlargement itself. It is also evi- Army. That is to say, those “diplomatic ru- be only those of security and military, but dent that the representatives of the mours” on the weakness of the Slovenian also refer to foreign policy, economic, sci- Slovenian state believed in a democratic Army, not enough educated military offi- entific, research, technical, and organisa- effect of NATO enlargement – member- cers, and leaking of military secrets, were tional issues, (3) a potential NATO mem- ship would foster democratic political close to the truth. bership of Slovenia means the inclusion of processes in Slovenia. The optimistic estimation of NATO country in the political and security frame- There is great optimism within Sloveni- membership costs seen in previous years work of the most developed Western Eu- a’s official ranks regarding the relative is surpassed by the “national strategy”. ropean and North American countries, it costs of NATO: Slovenia is capable and The Government envisaged an approxi- also means, promotion of economic and prepared to pay and the expenditures will mate 25 per cent increase in its defence social co-operation and development, be lower than in the case of an individual budget due to the expected gradual ac- strengthening credibility of Slovenia, pro- approach to security. cession to NATO (from 1.83 per cent of motion of its international status and ne- The official document on NATO and GDP in 1997 to 2.3 per cent in year gotiating power, and consolidation of the Slovenia, adopted by the Government, is 2003). In year 2000, this objective was international identity of Slovenia as a de- comprised of 23 pages, many which hard- postponed to year 2010, while the actual mocratic and peaceful country. ly correspond to the title of the document: trend goes in the opposite direction – in Hence, the official standpoint of Slove- National Strategy for Integration of Repub- 2000 the defence spending reached nia as far as the potential membership in lic of Slovenia into NATO. Namely, the doc- merely 1.45 per cent of GDP. NATO is concerned, emphasizes security ument addresses broader topics such as The document anticipates only positive and non-security aspects of the member- European security architecture, the role of effects of Slovenia’s membership in NATO ship as equally important. OSCE, the history of NATO-Slovenia and (enhanced stability and greater possibility While analysing the official statements, WEU-Slovenia relations, and Common For- of social development, enhanced security, it could be seen that the attitudes of the eign Security Policy of EU, while the activi- better image of the country within the in- highest representatives within the Sloven- ties to achieve membership are com- ternational community, economic, scientif- ian state toward NATO membership were pressed in points with no firm theoretical ic and technological push, and even long- very general and political in nature. All rep- or empirical background, therefore, hardly term reduction of defence expenditures) resentatives placed the discussion of NA- to be called “national strategy”. while the possible negative consequences TO enlargement in a spectrum of globali- The official standpoint of Slovenia, as of membership are not forecast. sation and European integration, and they far as potential membership in NATO is all viewed enlargement as a means to concerned, equally emphasizes security Parliamentary political parties’ achieve a new European security ‘archi- and non-security aspects of membership, attitude toward NATO tecture’. Therefore, Slovenian high state i.e. political, economic, scientific, and even Although differences existed among representatives envisaged NATO as a col- cultural (values). parliamentary political parties by the end lective security organisation, rather than a Not everything was so clear regarding of 1998 we might say that it is possible to collective defence organisation.2 Another Slovenia’s fulfilment of basic criteria set by classify Slovenian political parties into two common element of all presented stand- NATO for the first round of its enlarge- groups with regard to this issue. The first points was the attitude toward military ment. Namely, the high representatives of group comprised the four most powerful force in Europe as an artefact – their atti- the state claimed Slovenia fulfilled the cri- parliamentary parties – the Liberal Democ- tudes expressed a high degree of opti- teria, while the document envisaged many racy of Slovenia (LDS), the Slovenian Peo- mism about the low possibility of the use foreign policy, military, administrative, and ple’s Party (SLS), the Social Democratic of military force on the continent. financial activities to be carried out in ref- Party of Slovenia (SDS) and the Slovenian Slovenian membership in NATO would erence to those criteria. Therefore, we Christian Democrats (SKD) – that unre- mean the return of the country to a cultur- could assume, the Slovenian government servedly supported Slovenia’s entry into al circle that Slovenia belonged in the accepted the (mainly American) criticism NATO. The position of the SKD however, past, and is understood as a correction of brought to Slovenia by US State Secretary has not been set out in detail and justified the historical injustice caused by the con- Madeleine Albright after the Madrid Sum- – at least not publicly4. The second group sequences of the Second World War. It is mit. Albright gave some credit to Slovenia contained the United List of Social De- also evident that NATO enlargement is for all its reforms accomplished by that mocrats (ZLSD), the Democratic Pension- 78 ers’ Party (DESUS) and the Slovenian Na- garding the fulfilment of conditions for cisive influence, while the opposition par- tional Party (SNS), which declaratively NATO membership, it is important to ties blamed the government for the fail- supported NATO membership but with stress that one of the basic criteria set by ure. The two key coalition parties that certain reservations or under certain con- NATO was that disputes with neighbour- made up the government – the LDS and ditions. The ZLSD was most divided with ing countries should be resolved. Obvious- the SLS – at least indirectly saw the diffi- regard to this issue, since the party’s ly, Slovenia doesn”t meet this criterion, culties of Slovenia”s integration with NA- Women’s Forum and Youth Forum explic- since there are still undecided questions TO in the unsatisfactory readiness of the itly opposed NATO membership for Slove- with Croatia, among them the question of Slovenian