Political-military aspects of the Croatia-US bilateral relations during 2000–2013

Throughout the entire period of the European integration of the Republic of Croatia, its relations with the USA not only haven’t fallen to the background due to the country’s overwhelming EU-membership oriented activities and influenced significantly Croatian dialogue with Brussels, but also certainly influenced the foreign policy of Zagreb. Therefore, studying European integration of Croatia without a closer look at the Croatian relations with the USA as its strategic partner over that period would be incomplete. The importance of the USA for Croatia could be explained by the Euro-Atlantic aspiration of the latter, as well as by the American influence on its perspective of the NATO membership. What is more, the military cooperation between the two countries became very dynamic over this period due to the US’ perception of Croatia as a main regional partner in the South-East Europe and the future EU and NATO member, which would be capable of contributing to stabilizing the region and being an ally of Washington in its fundamental international initiatives. Over the recent years, when the processes of integration in Europe felt the loss of dynamics and consequently opened a door for possible instability in the South-East Europe, Croatia gained more weight in the US’ perception in the capacity of a partner and of the democratic country with stable security situation, operational market economy, respected human rights, which could positively influence the neighboring states