Albania between the West and...the West!

2026-01-21 21:24:00, Opinione Lutfi Dervishi

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace. Every day there is a big news story that is different from the one the day before and is shocking. The war in Ukraine is entering its fifth year. Alliances are faltering, and great powers are talking less and less about values ??and more and more about interests. The order we knew after World War II, and especially the period (fortunately for Albanians) after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is now history. The architect of this order is today the harshest critic of the work he himself built.

The US, the main creator of the post-war order, today appears dissatisfied with its own product. The “America First” doctrine, clearly articulated by President Donald Trump, is not an electoral slogan; it sees globalization as a loss for American interests, the European Union as a failure in migration policies, and NATO as an unequal financial burden. (For 70 years, the US covered 65% of the cost). When allies are threatened with tariffs, when resentment towards NATO comes from a major member, and when territorial claims are put on the table, what was unthinkable yesterday is inevitable today.
Albania and Albanians owe an existential debt to the US. From President Wilson (1919) who defended the Albanians at the Peace Conference, to Bill Clinton (1999) for the intervention in Kosovo, to George W. Bush (2008) for his decisive support for NATO membership. This connection, nurtured by the half a million Albanians who are now American citizens, is both emotional and strategic.

At the same time, Albania is on the path to membership in the European Union. Euro-Atlantic integration is the strategic project of the last decades. Membership in the EU family does not simply mean more funds, but more rules, institutions and stability. Nearly 2 million Albanians are citizens of one of the EU countries.
Yesterday, in Davos, Mark Carney of Canada, referring to Vaclav Havel's essay (The Power of the Powerless), used the metaphor of the "window display", the slogans we hold up to appear correct, while the reality behind the glass is much more brutal. In Havel's essay, the vegetable seller who had placed the sign "proletarians of all countries unite" on the glass did not believe in communism, but did not want to get into trouble.
Has the time come to ask whether the sign "Euro-Atlantic integration" in our window is serving as camouflage for a store that is emptying day by day.
In a world where great powers do not need to use their voice to dictate, small countries have two choices: either become very vocal and risk being ignored, or become wisely silent and see "their work" "stubbornly". Albania does not even have the weight to change the fate of the globe or the course of events, but it has the obligation to play seriously for itself.
Historical allies remain pillars, but the new world requires functional alliances. It requires partnerships for energy, security, technology and food. These are the keywords of the new era.
What does the country produce today? How dependent are we on imports?
If, tomorrow, a large-scale conflict breaks out, the questions will be brutal. Do we have energy? Do we have food? Do we have cyber defense? Do we have reserves? Do we have military equipment, weapons and ammunition? What will we produce in the field of defense?
In this context, coordination with Kosovo in the fields of energy, defense, food and security is a strategic imperative. Two small states, with the same geopolitical space and facing the same danger, cannot behave like two brothers who each see their own yard when the house is on fire.
Albania does not have the luxury of choosing between the West and the West. The day may come when it must make decisions and choose, as is the case with the Peace Board, but in the meantime, at a time when everyone thinks “it’s up to them”, we must start thinking more about ourselves. Better without slogans in the shop window and more desire behind the glass. If our shop remains empty, at the big geopolitical table they will use us as change. We may feel very sorry, we may be upset, we may be offended, but it will be too late…
In closing, it is worth noting that today the stage where the debates, disagreements and contradictions of the new global order collide has moved to Davos, Switzerland. A country that is neither a member of the European Union nor of NATO, and that only became a member of the United Nations in 2002.