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Since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization first formally raised the issue of expanding its membership in 1994, most of Central and Eastern Europe's new democracies have lobbied extensively for invitations into Europe's preeminent security alliance. In 1997 at the Madrid Summit, only three states-the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland-were offered invitations to join. They became full members in 1999. In 2000, nine states known as the "Vilnius Nine" came together in Vilnius, Lithuania, to promote their joint membership appeal. These states included Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Since that time the momentum for expansion has grown as Croatia has joined in the call for membership in NATO.
Although US President George W. Bush's Administration was quiet on the question of NATO's expansion in its first months in office, upon his first presidential trip to Europe in June 2001, Bush called for NATO's enlargement "from the Baltic to Black Sea."1 Such robust appeals for expansion increased after the 11 September 2001 terrorist strikes on the United States.
Among all applicant states, Slovenia has been viewed by both politicians and analysts as the most likely candidate to be invited at NATO's forthcoming summit in Prague in November 2002. On 21 June 2000, US Senator Joe Biden remarked that Slovenia was "eminently qualified for NATO membership" and a "shoo-in in Prague."2 On 31 May 2002, Senator George Voinovich similarly stated, "I do not know of any of the aspirants that are interested in NATO that [is] more qualified than Slovenia."3 Thomas S. Szayna also argued in a recent study that Slovenia was the best prepared of all applicants for membership.4 Such beliefs were echoed at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in the summer of 2001.(5)
While Slovenia is known to many defense specialists and military experts, most Americans know little about this small European state, which has a land mass similar in size to New Jersey and a population of only two million people. This article attempts to bridge that gap by providing a political and military assessment of Slovenia's potential contributions to the alliance as a formal member-state. Such questions will become increasingly important to the parliaments of the NATO allies, and especially to the US Senate, once the eventual invitees undergo...