Paper Title
The International Involvement as a Key Sine Quo Non for Managing Internal Threats to Macedonia`S Statehood

Abstract
Following its independence, the Republic of Macedonia was faced with two major challenges during the 1990s, including “preserving its territorial integrity in the face of external threats and the potential spillover of violence from other Balkan conflicts” and “addressing the inter-ethnic tensions that existed within the country between ethnic Macedonians and the ethnic Albanian minority”. Both questions were de facto potential conflict risk factors for the new state having a weak economy and very fragile state institutions in that period of time. The next wave of crises in the country occurred in 2007 and in 2012, both of which ended with an internationally / EU-brokered deals. The so-called Przino Agreement in 2015 and its extension in 2016 were reached with the engagement of several MEPs and the personal involvement of the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn. On the basis of those documents the latest extraordinary parliamentary elections took place in December 2016 and the new Macedonian Government was finally established in June 2017. Keywords - Challenges, Capture State, Conflict Prevention, Inter-Ethnic Tensions, Dialogue, EU, Mediation, Macedonia, NATO, Diplomacy, Pribe Reports, Przino Agreement, Threats.