1. Kosovo 20 Years On: Implications for International Order
- Author:
- Edward Newman and Gëzim Visoka
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- Kosovo’s small size belies the major impact it has had on the evolving international order: the norms and institutions that shape the behavior and practices of states and other international actors. In three controversial policy ar- eas—humanitarian intervention, international peacebuilding, and international recognition—Kosovo has been the focus of events and debates with far-reaching and globally significant effects. This article will present and discuss these three subjects, and then conclude by considering how Kosovo’s future may continue to be tied to the shifting contours of international order in the context of renewed great power geopolitical rivalry. Kosovo was originally a province within the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia, but Serbia undermined its autonomy in 1989, after which Kosovo became a major flashpoint for instability and conflict within the West Balkans. Resistance within Kosovo and a heavy-handed Serbian response resulted in the NATO-led military intervention in 1999 aimed at ending persecution. This “illegal but legitimate” intervention occurred in the absence of UN Security Council ap- proval but had a significant degree of support, in particular from Western states.1 It subsequently paved the way for a broad reconsideration of when and how armed force may be used to stop or prevent egregious human rights abuses. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, which all UN member states agreed upon in 2005 to prevent or end atrocities, is a part of this legacy.2
- Topic:
- Ethnic Conflict, Geopolitics, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and International Order
- Political Geography:
- Kosovo and Balkans