Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and

Balkan countries such as Bulgaria and Romania served in the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. Greece served in NATO and rebellious communist states such as Albania left the Warsaw Pact in 1968 and the former Yugoslavia never joined the Warsaw Pact and participated in the Non-Aligned Movement. The end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s collapse, and Yugoslavia’s disintegration into vicious internecine conflicts and separate nation states ended the Balkans cold war security infrastructure. The subsequent two decades would see the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gradually expand its presence into the Balkans with some opposition expressed by Russia which considers the Balkans, particularly Serbia, to be a core area of its security interests. Balkan countries besides Greece joining NATO as o