OPINION:
If there’s one thing I learned the hard way during my time in politics, it’s that what happens in the dark of night in Washington often matters more than what is debated in the daylight. Bills don’t just pass on the strength of their ideas; they pass because of who writes them, who benefits from them and how quietly they are slipped into law.
That’s why the Western Balkans Prosperity Act should trouble anyone who believes Congress owes the American people transparency, honesty and restraint — especially when it’s tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act like a rider no one is supposed to notice.
Let’s start with the legislative context. For some time now, a handful of House members and senators have been pushing the Western Balkans Prosperity Act as if it were an uncontroversial good deed, a benevolent effort to promote stability and growth in a region with a complicated history. Sounds nice. Who could be against “prosperity?” But when lawmakers take a stand-alone bill with major geopolitical implications and jam it into a massive must-pass defense bill, it raises a basic question: If this legislation is so virtuous, why not debate it openly?
The NDAA is Washington’s ultimate legislative Trojan horse. It’s enormous, it’s essential and it almost always passes. By slipping the Western Balkans Prosperity Act into it, proponents of the bill cynically avoided scrutiny, a real debate and accountability. That alone should set off alarms.
Supporters frame the measure as a way to foster democracy and economic development in the Western Balkans, but critics — and I count myself among them — see something very different. This isn’t about prosperity. It’s about nation-building. It’s about political engineering abroad, the same kind that has drained American resources, destabilized entire regions and cost countless lives over the past few decades.
Worse still, the act appears to carry a distinctly partisan edge. It aligns neatly with efforts to marginalize or punish European leaders who are strong supporters of President Trump. Foreign leaders are eager to develop strategic partnerships with the United States based on the Trump administration’s determination to transition from a foreign aid paradigm to an investment and growth paradigm. This legislation seeks to punish elected leaders in the Balkans who refuse to fall in line with the prevailing foreign policy orthodoxy. That’s not diplomacy. That’s ideological enforcement.
Look at whom the act seems designed to target: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Milorad Dodik, the elected leader of Republika Srpska. These are not obscure figures. They are central political actors in the Western Balkans, and they share one unforgivable sin in the eyes of Washington’s foreign policy establishment: They don’t reliably toe the line. They have been vocal in their support of Trump-era policies and skeptical of the permanent interventionist mindset that dominates both Brussels and Washington.
Rather than engaging these leaders through diplomacy, the act aims to undermine them politically, economically and institutionally. That’s regime change by another name. We’ve seen how that movie ends, from Iraq to Libya to Afghanistan, and it is never with prosperity.
The timing of the act also tells an important story. The Western Balkans Prosperity Act arrives just as the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has effectively shut off funding to many nongovernmental organizations in the region. That shift is significant. For years, American taxpayers have funded a sprawling network of NGOs abroad, many of which function more as political instruments than as charities.
Now, with that funding drying up, Congress appears eager to replace one lever of influence with another, this time embedded in defense policy.
This raises a fundamental question: If the goal were truly economic development and peace, why tie it to military authorization at all? Why place it under the umbrella of national defense unless the real objective is coercion rather than cooperation?
Zooming out, the geopolitical implications are impossible to ignore. The Western Balkans sit at the crossroads of competing interests: the European Union, NATO, Russia and the U.S. This legislation seems less about stabilizing that crossroads and more about hardening lines. It fits neatly into a broader pattern of escalating tension with Russia — tensions driven as much by entrenched bureaucratic interests as by any genuine threat to American security.
Consider what’s happening simultaneously. The European Union has approved a massive loan package for Ukraine. NATO is openly backing military actions that reach into Russian territory. Congress is now passing legislation that pressures leaders in the Balkans who resist aligning themselves fully against Moscow and who are capable of playing a constructive role in Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine. This isn’t coincidence. It’s coordination.
Some call this strategy. Others call it the work of a “deep state” — unelected officials and institutions that pursue their own agenda regardless of who wins elections or what voters want. You don’t have to believe in conspiracy theories to see that a powerful, self-perpetuating foreign policy establishment benefits from endless tension, endless spending and endless conflict.
I know something about entrenched systems protecting themselves. I saw it up close in Illinois, and I paid a steep price for challenging it. That experience makes me skeptical when lawmakers tell us to trust them, especially when they operate behind closed doors.
The American people are tired of foreign entanglements that never seem to end. They are tired of sending money overseas while their own communities struggle. And they are tired of being told that every regional dispute is somehow a matter of U.S. national survival.
The Western Balkans Prosperity Act, hidden inside the NDAA, represents more of the same. It signals that despite all the talk of change, Washington remains committed to a foreign policy that prioritizes control over cooperation and ideology over peace.
If Congress truly wants prosperity in the Balkans, it should start with honesty — about intentions, costs and consequences. It should respect the sovereignty of other nations and the intelligence of the American people. And it should stop passing sweeping geopolitical legislation in the dead of night.
Because history has shown us this much: When democracy happens in the dark, the people always pay the price.
• Rod Blagojevich served as governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. In February, he was pardoned by President Trump for his conviction on corruption charges.
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