Macedonia took a step forward in its attempt to join Western organizations on July 11 when NATO formally invited it to begin talks to join the military alliance. NATO's invitation arrived barely a month after Macedonia reached an agreement with Greece to change its name to "Northern Macedonia" and end a decadeslong dispute and remove one of the main obstacles preventing Macedonia from joining NATO and the European Union. Skopje's road ahead, however, will remain bumpy, because opposition groups in both Macedonia and Greece have heavily contested the deal. And to make things more complicated, both countries' governments have accused Russia of trying to undermine the agreement....
