North Macedonia is a small country with great ethnic diversity situated in a turbulent neighbourhood. In the past three decades since its independence, the country has faced a plethora of issues—from political and economic crises to social conflicts. Even though some predicaments were relatively minor in terms of impact whilst others created widespread political and institutional turmoil affecting its stability or severe security issues, each and every event shaped the country’s stance and prospects. In addition to its stalled European integration path and complex neighbourly relations (some former, others ongoing), North Macedonia had a lengthy struggle to join NATO but eventually succeeded in 2020. Five years on, the country managed to position itself as a valuable member of the Alliance by actively participating in joint security as part of the Allied interoperability, thus shifting its role from security consumer to security contributor. Employing the traffic light system on threat perception and public opinion polls, North Macedonia is most likely positioned at ‘yellow’.