After the break-up of the Yugoslav federation, the last republic to face civil
conflict was Macedonia, which only experienced limited fighting and civil strife.
In 2001, Macedonia’s fragile interethnic balance collapsed and fighting between
the Macedonian armed forces and the Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA)
erupted. However, the International Community resolved the conflict before it
spread widely and immediately after that launched activities to accelerate the
joining of Macedonia to European Union (EU). This study examines
international assistance for reconciliation within a peacebuilding context.
Particularly, it focuses on the activities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) as a peacebuilding actor. The OSCE has already been
working to provide ethnic minorities’ equal representation within the Police and to
implement police reforms in Macedonia. This paper also briefly discusses the
incidents in recent years in Macedonia and the contributions and efforts of the
International Police in this reform process.