INTERNAL SECURITY CHALLENGES OF NORTH MACEDONIA AS A NATO MEMBER STATE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The role of international organizations in the process of fighting with the Covid-19 pandemic was brought into the question for several reasons: first, certain international organizations did not have capacities for reacting promptly during the pervasive pandemic; second, certain international organizations focused on economic integration did not have even distribution of resources set for fight against pandemic, while the third group of international organizations, focused on security issues, as it is NATO, have had even more questionable role during the pandemic, bearing in mind that they not reallocated bigger part of military spending for medicaments and medical equipment, especially for developing member states such as North Macedonia, but its contribution was mostly symbolic through humanitarian aid. The focus in this paper would be to find an answer to the question whether international organizations which are dealing with security and defence questions are focused only to so-called hard threats or in theirs strategies they have understanding for contemporary threats which is facing modern societies, such as Covid-19 pandemic. North Macedonia NATO membership will be used as a case study in this paper bearing in mind that it is small country with the weak economy capacities and political system in the process of transition. The major goal of the paper would be to present the role of NATO during the Covid-19 pandemic, how this organization has provided assistance to North Macedonia authorities during the pandemic, as a most serious threat for the sustainability of the public institutions, as well as to provide suggestions for new security strategies of NATO in the upcoming period, which would be focused not only to the so-called conventional threats in terms of military power, but also to the civil threats that in contemporary societies could harm the national system even harder than it could be done using military instruments.