I’ve actually experienced tighter security in a Gap clothing store than I did entering the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense in Sofia. As an apathetic guard looked over my paperwork and summoned the escort that would take me upstairs for an interview with the defense minister, I observed, over the main door, a bleak-looking electronic device displaying the current outdoor radiation level. It wasn’t quite the same as seeing the friendly time and temperature sign flashing atop your local bank. Alongside the read-out a color-coded meter affirmed that the nearby Kozloduy nuclear power plant had not suffered a meltdown.

Lacking all pretense of social well-being, the building was everything that one would expect in an ex-East Bloc governmental edifice. In the main foyer, rising like columnar time lines, there was a pair of stained glass windows depicting heroic martial scenes from the time of ancient Thracian archers on up to grenade tossing World-War-II-era Bulgarian infantrymen clad in Nazi-style helmets.

Trying to make sense out of NATO’s furthermost eastward expansion into nations such as Bulgaria, Rumania, the Baltic States or Ukraine can be as difficult from up close as it is from an ocean away. Most of the classic Cold War Soviet trademarks are still very much evident, from MIG fighters, to AK-47s, to top military officers sporting those high-crowned visor hats with the broad, round tops.

Even though I’ve interviewed a host of political leaders from across the former Warsaw Pact on the subject of NATO expansion, it’s still difficult to articulate the overarching 21st-century function of the organization. Nevertheless, despite appearing somewhat awkward for carrying out non-military mandates, this half-century-old institution is in a prime position to make dormant the political upheavals that have for so long made this region one of the world’s great geopolitical fault zones.

Bulgaria was once about as inseparable from the Soviet Union as a nation could get without actually being a part of it. Today, however, a political science graduate student would have a hard time finding a more interesting dissertation subject than Bulgaria’s current prime minister, Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the onetime king, who was sent into Spanish exile by the Communists as a child of eight.

Upon coming into elective office one American newspaper described Simeon as &uot;still handsome at the age of 63, with a neat gray beard and a taste for elegant suits.&uot; The ever-popular Simeon, a financial consultant by trade, seems an unlikely figure to appeal to a country where the average income is about $1,600 per year.

But this is precisely why NATO is so important. Simeon, like elected officials all across Central Europe, views NATO as less of a defensive organization as he does &uot;a perimeter of stability,&uot; in which membership in the alliance would translate into an increase in investment.

Bulgaria, a staunch supporter in the war against terror, will achieve accession to NATO this week. Ukraine, meanwhile, once an integral part of the Soviet Union, is one of the big question marks on the NATO horizon. Over the past year Ukraine has abandoned its high-wire act of trying to please both Russia and the West, and is now clamoring to receive a list of membership stipulations from NATO.

Especially problematic for NATO is Ukraine’s president, Leonid Kuchma, whose track record in democratic governance is often called into question. However, as one of Europe’s largest nations, containing more than 50 million people and a strategic location to boot, Ukraine is, according to a Washington Post editorial, &uot;too big to be safely kept on the back burner.&uot;

The world last saw Kuchma, consoling victim’s families after the July 27 air show disaster that killed 76 people in Lviv. As with the Italian gondola incident that killed 20 people in 1998, involving low-flying American ground-attack aircraft, such accidents are bound to occur with or without NATO.

Still, member states should seize the day by requiring Ukraine to begin a military modernization program and present the country with a list of accession criteria that includes a call for economic reforms and a strengthening of human rights. Given that stability is the main mantra of NATO’s true believers, Kuchma, by the time of Ukraine’s 2004 presidential elections, will at least have handed over a stable country.

Ukraine should also be given proper credit for having dispossessed itself from the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal &045; an enormous step, the scale of which is impossible to match by other aspirant nations.

By expanding into the former front-line states of Eastern Europe, NATO is breathing new life into itself. Rather than simply hide behind cosmetic niceties, these are nations that back up their words with action &045; reliable partners that stand in stark contrast to supposed allies such as Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

Albert Lea native John Rosenberg is a political and foreign affairs writer living in Alexandria, Va.