The State Department submitted its first report on the Western Balkans to Congress under the newly adopted Western Balkans Democracy and Prosperity Act.
In Kosovo, public attention remained focused on the pre-election political atmosphere, and the report was only occasionally mentioned through isolated quotations and observations. Yet, rather than turning to the usual conspiracy theories that may be promoted by political actors or commentators, it is worth extracting the essential messages contained in the State Department report itself. If it were rewritten as a memorandum addressed to the political parties competing in the elections, it might read as follows:
1. Stability as the Absolute Priority: No Threats of New Elections
The American administration considers regional stability a precondition for every other strategic objective. Within this framework, avoiding destabilising post-election rhetoric and fully respecting constitutional order and democratic procedures will remain a priority. In America, these are called “motherhood and apple pie” issues — things considered entirely self-evident. Yet it was also assumed that, after democratic elections accepted by all sides, functional institutions would be formed quickly and without difficulty, and nevertheless that did not happen.
The message to political parties is clear: the ability to create functional institutions without prolonged paralysis is proof of stability. Conversely, blocking the formation of institutions constitutes a direct assault on stability itself.
This means that pre-election rhetoric must abandon threats that the country will once again head to early elections if “my/our condition is not fulfilled.” The message instead should be that, following elections, state institutions will be established immediately, based on the electoral result and on the obligation of all parties to build social consensus as a prerequisite for stability.
2. There Is No American Magic Wand for the Dialogue with Serbia
The State Department report states that “the United States continues to encourage Serbia and Kosovo to make progress toward normalising relations, with the aim of reaching a negotiated, durable, and mutually acceptable agreement.” The very wording of American policy in this sentence points to a difficult negotiating process, not to a sudden act capable of instantly creating new realities.
The message to political parties during the campaign is therefore:
- Do not use the dialogue as an instrument of populist mobilisation;
- Do not delegitimise the concept of compromise;
- Understand that coordination with allies remains a component of Kosovo’s national security.
Kosovo has no reason to fear the negotiating process. Its ultimate purpose is to create regional stability, and for Kosovo this is possible only through good interstate relations with Serbia, based on mutual respect.
3. Kosovo as a Provider of Security, Not Merely a Consumer
The American report highlights Kosovo’s transformation from a “consumer of security” into a “provider of security” through the development of the Kosovo Security Force and participation in international initiatives such as the upcoming peacekeeping operation in Gaza.
Everyone should welcome this and leave the Kosovo Security Force outside partisan instrumentalisation. Its development into a defence force built according to NATO standards should not even be a matter of political dispute. The best thing political competitors can do is declare themselves part of the consensus around the KSF, while preserving its multiethnic and professional character.
4. Energy, Geopolitics, and Two Key Projects
In the document — as has long been the case in American diplomacy — energy is treated as a strategic security issue, not merely one of economic development. Although the report approaches this as a complex regional challenge in which each Western Balkan country has its own needs and obligations — such as regional interconnections, transmission networks linked to the European market, gas capacities, renewable energy, and the cybersecurity of energy systems — Kosovo in reality should focus on two major issues contained within a single half-sentence:
“Modernisation of Kosovo’s coal-fired power plants and coal gasification projects.”
The message to political parties competing in the elections is that there is no magic wand. There may be many ideas and alternatives — all useful and necessary, particularly renewable energy sources such as wind and solar — but in the end, the projects that guarantee Kosovo’s energy independence still return to coal, now through the use of the latest technologies.
5. Organised Crime
“Organised crime groups from the Western Balkans pose a direct threat to the national security of the United States and the American homeland. Western Balkan criminal networks have established ties that strengthen and enrich drug cartels designated as foreign terrorist organisations based in the Western Hemisphere, which in turn traffic illicit narcotics and facilitate illegal migration into the United States.”
There can hardly be a clearer formulation than this regarding the importance this American administration assigns to organised crime as a national security issue. For Kosovo, this contains demands for attention in two areas. The first concerns the paramilitary group of Milan Radoičić as part of a broader organised crime structure. The second is that Kosovo lies between two states — Serbia and Albania — where international organised crime possesses considerable financial power and political influence. The pressure exerted by these groups, whether through money laundering or political influence, will be significant.
Radoičić demonstrated this through the Serbian List; it should therefore be expected that Albanian political parties and Kosovo’s institutions will continue to face pressure from organised criminal interests.
The message to political parties is:
Commit yourselves through concrete action to financial transparency in party financing, to legislation against organised crime, and to ending the culture of legal immunity for politically exposed individuals.
6. The Silent American Message
The document contains an important philosophical shift: the United States no longer sees itself as the administrator of the Balkans, but rather as a power that supports local actors only when they produce stability and functional partnership.
For Kosovo’s political parties, this can be translated into a single sentence:
The era when Washington invested in Kosovo unconditionally is over; American investment is now conditioned on Kosovo’s capacity to function as a serious state.