Albania, the United States, and a Tumultuous World

As Albania advances on its ambitious goal of joining the EU by 2030, it must also adapt to a changing world order. FM Spiropali will discuss how Albania and its neighbors perceive the global tumult, and how the Balkans are affected. Can Albania continue its unprecedented EU accession progress? What role should the US play in the region? And how can Albania resist malign influence from Russia and China, as well as cyber attacks from Iran?

In conversation with FPI Senior Fellow Edward P. Joseph.

(This is an in-person only event.)

Ms. Elisa Spiropali was born on 15 March 1983 in Tirana.

Since September 2025, she has held the position of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

She has served as Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania during its 10th Legislature. In this role, she distinguished herself by revitalizing and strengthening parliamentary diplomacy, representing the Assembly in international initiatives, and fostering inter-institutional cooperation with partner parliaments.

From January 2019 to July 2024, Ms. Spiropali served as Minister of State for Relations with Parliament, a position to which she was reappointed in September 2021.

She has been elected as a Member of the Parliament of Albania for three consecutive terms since 2017, holding senior positions in party leadership and standing out as a distinguished political figure.

Before her political engagement, Ms. Spiropali was actively involved in civil society, particularly in the fields of good governance and civic participation, and also worked as a lecturer in political science and international relations.

In 1999, at the age of 16, she left Albania on a full merit-based scholarship to pursue the IB Diploma at Lester B. Pearson College, UWC, Canada. She later graduated with honors in Politics and Economics from Mount Holyoke College, USA. She then pursued postgraduate studies in Contemporary European Politics (MA) at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, as a Chevening Scholar.

Ms. Spiropali is married and has two children, Nalta and Kren.

Edward P. Joseph, as a veteran of the Balkans conflicts, has served in every conflict theatre in the region, during the war years as well as in post-war implementation. This includes service with the UN, OSCE, US Army/NATO, International Crisis Group, and Catholic Relief Services. In a dozen years on the ground, Edward served as a senior official in all three of the region’s divided cities: Mostar, Brcko and Mitrovica.

In May 2012, as the US-nominated Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Edward negotiated the eleventh hour agreement between Belgrade and Pristina to hold Serbian national elections in Kosovo, averting a confrontation.

A key moment of his war-time service occurred in July 1995 – contemporaneous with the massacres in neighboring Srebrenica – when Edward and one UN colleague coordinated the evacuation of women, children and wounded soldiers from the fallen Žepa ‘safe area.’ This entailed face-to-face dealings with Generals Ratko Mladić and other senior Bosnian Serb officers; Edward testified in two Hague Tribunal trials that resulted in convictions. Outside the Balkans, Edward has served in missions in Iraq (2007), Afghanistan (2008-9), Pakistan (2007-8) and Haiti (2005-6; 2010.) He has led the Institute of Current World Affairs and the National Council on US-Libya Relations.

Edward earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law, and his B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and its School of Advanced International Studies. He teaches, convenes events, and researches at SAIS. Trained as a helicopter pilot in the US Army Reserve, Edward is a veteran. He speaks Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian; and French, Italian and Spanish.

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