Albania

Albania, one of Europe's smallest countries, is situated in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. It has a 360-km (225-mi) coastline on the Adriatic and Ionian seas and is bounded on the north by Yugoslavia, on the east by Macedonia, and on the southeast by Greece. The Albanians' name for their country, Shqiperi, which means "eagles' land," aptly suggests Albania's isolated, rugged terrain and its strongly independent people. In the 1990s, after more than …

…deceit. Ultimately, a Marshall Plan is needed to put Albania back on track. But unlike in the past, Western support must be conditioned on strict human rights guarantees, such as the establishment of independent courts, a free media and depoliticized police. Assistance of any sort - economic aid, political support or an international intervention - without these guarantees will ignore the problems that got Albania and the West into this jam in the first place.