from Politico 9/2024 H/T AuntBB
This Balkan country is one of the most important in-between places in the world today. Its fate will help determine which Great Power comes to dominate this century — and is an overlooked test of American power for whoever takes the White House this November.
Serbia sits in a geostrategic gray zone, pulled between the authoritarian powers of Beijing and Moscow and more recently, after some years of neglect, the U.S. and its European allies. It’s not alone. Moldova and Georgia are two other European states straddling those worlds. The Ukrainians have fought for over two years to stay free. In Asia, the proxy battle between democracy and despotism is over Taiwan.
For now, Serbia’s leaders lean this way and that, depending on the day, without explicitly picking sides. But this struggle is going to come to a head sooner than later...
But neither Washington nor Brussels has leaned in on Serbia. Their main
goal seems to be to keep Serbia from becoming a Russian satellite like
Belarus. “Our greatest concern is the malign influence of Russia,” said a
Western diplomat who asked not to be named. “We want Serbia aligned
with the West, part of a system that opposes Russian expansionism.”...
Serbs eager to head westward look above all to Washington. The
senior minister said the U.S. should be using its voice and influence to
help Serbia, as it did Poland and other Central European countries over
20 years ago, to get into the EU. Many Serbs remember that the last
U.S. president to visit Belgrade was Jimmy Carter in 1980. China’s Xi
has been here twice and Putin three times. A little more focus on Serbia
in Washington could make a difference on the ground here — to give this
government a path to get closer to the free world and, along the way,
make them less predisposed to autocrats and autocratic habits...
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