For almost a decade now, Macedonia has been trying to gain entry into the European Union. This process has not always been an easy one for the formerly communist nations that have, in the years since the fall of the Iron Curtain, tried to rebuild their standing in the eyes of the rest of the continent and the world. Macedonia’s trials have been unique, though. The main hurdle preventing their entry right now is a dispute with Greece over the name of their country — the formal name is the Formal Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the UN refers to it that way. However, Skopje, Macedonia’s capital, prefers the Republic of Macedonia. Greece believes that the name in the form that Macedonia wants would lead to territorial conflicts over the province of Macedonia in Northern Greece, where the Greeks claim Alexander the Great was born.

And there, the history comes in. Both countries claim ownership of Alexander – even Skopje’s airport is called “Alexander the Great” airport. Alexander the Great died in 323 BC; this conflict has roots that go back well over 2000 years. It seems like a small conflict, the name of a country, but there is so much history on both sides that it seems unlikely to an outsider that the neighboring countries will ever reach a resolution.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s where GES comes in. One of the international delegates at the 2009 Summit, a Macedonian, has worked for years for an organization attempting to help his home country make a push into the EU. Although his project was related to resolving ethnic conflicts in the Balkans on a small scale (there’s another blog post in there somewhere), his work for his country represents one characteristic that most, if not all, GES delegates share: idealism. How could one young man make the difference in a fight that draws off the cultural foundations of the countries on both sides?

Sure, he has not succeeded in that particular goal quite yet. Soon, maybe. But the wonderful thing about the idealism that GES delegates come in with is that they have all taken the next step towards achieving those ideals by designing a project and applying to the Summit, where the workshops they attend will help them to make those ideals become a reality. Latent ideals will only lead to disappointment. Applying to GES will lead to anything but.