France’s geopolitical vision for Europe and the Western Balkans: the case of North Macedonia

Abstract

The main aim of the paper is to analyse France’s position in a global and regional geopolitical context. That also means in EU affairs related to enlargement policy and views about the Western Balkans and North Macedonia. The European Union is modelled on the spread of democratic values and economic benefits for the members. Also, the EU has recently developed sustainable neighbourly policies. Nevertheless, recent events like Brexit, misunderstandings within the Union, and the enlargement process blockade led to deconstructive processes and opened up new dilemmas that require comprehensive scientific analysis. The paper aims to analyse France geopolitically and its influence on the Western Balkans and the EU enlargement policy. The changing methodology of the EU approaching stopped North Macedonia and Albania in 2019. We will try to research and provide a solution for North Macedonia, considering the new aspect of its foreign policy and France’s possible role in that process. From a theoretical point of view, this paper is based on critical geopolitics, i.e., a practical geopolitical approach. Primarily, the authors used articles and online data as a source of analysis.

Keywords

• france
• geopolitics
• north macedonia
• western balkans
• macron