Bringing Peace and Democracy to Troubled Places

This short study shows that while military Operations Other Than War (OOTW), attempt to provide security to particular areas, in the process of doing so, they stir undesirable tensions within the target society. The synergy of foreign armed forces deployed in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) with the local population has been a multidimensional relationship taking place in an extremely intricate and unstable environment. Although the United Nations deployment initially strengthened the Macedonian sociopolitical system, interactions between the foreign troops and the local society delegitimized the Macedonian government and widened the gaps between the Macedonian ethnic groups. Determined by the regional political situation, both ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians in FYROM have regarded the multinational military deployments in a simple dichotomy of allies or oppressors . The Macedonian case demonstrates that identity as the driving force of contemporary conflicts is not limited to the parties of the dispute, but instead stretches to the multinational military contingents.