State-Building in Kosovo: 'Stuck in the Mud' (original) (raw)
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The West’s state-building policy in Kosovo requires a radical overhaul
2016
How successful has the West been in implementing its state-building process in Kosovo? Andrea Lorenzo Capussela writes that despite extensive support from the West, Kosovo still ranks poorly on a number of key indicators and has a persistent problem with organised crime and corruption. He argues that if the West is unable or unwilling to confront Kosovo’s leadership and expose them to political and economic competition, as it pledged to do when it supported the territory’s independence, it should scale down its involvement to the level of other countries in the region.
Decentralisation in Kosovo: A Challenge to Deal With?
Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development, 2011
The decentralisation process in Kosovo emerged as a pathway to integrate the Serbian community. This article investigates the evolution of this process and by so doing underlines the key characteristics of this process since Kosovo was declared an independent and sovereign state on 17 February 2008. The article also argues that whilst the two largest ethnic groups in Kosovo have tried to take advantage of the decentralisation process, there is no other realistic alternative to decentralisation, except the partition of Kosovo’s territory that might start a domino effect throughout the Balkan region. There are two key documents that are essential to understanding the limits and scope of the decentralisation process in Kosovo – The Kai Eide Report and the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement delivered by the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari. In order to prevent the atomization and the fragmentation of the Kosovo society through the decentralisation process, the article concludes that, civil society in Kosovo should be empowered to play the ‘middle ground’ role between Kosovo state authorities and the Serbian community affected by the decentralisation process.
Statebuilding without Exit Strategy in Kosovo: Stability, Clientelism, and Corruption
Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, 2018
This paper argues that political stability was the main paradigm of the UN administrative mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). UNMIK has pursued this goal at the expense of democratization, economic development, and a clear vision for Kosovo. An insistence on working with local political elites with the aim of maintaining stability has greatly empowered these elites, at the cost of democratic consolidation. As a mission that has operated with an open-ended mandate and without an exit strategy, UNMIK co-opted the local political elites and gave tacit approval to their client-patron logic of governance and corruptive affairs in exchange for achieving what we call "negative stability" and postponing a final resolution of Kosovo's political status. In the period following the country's independence and European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) deployment, the same political elites consolidated their power and continued to build their clientelist networks and avoid public accountability. The paper concludes that despite massive investments, EULEX, like UNMIK, has prioritized stability at the cost of democratization.
State-Building and Democracy: Prosperity, Representation and Security in Kosovo
International Studies. Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal, 2012
The traditional assumption of the state sovereignty norm has been that an international society of states will structure the international order to safeguard the interests of the state. The end of the Cold War era transformed international relations and led to a discussion on how states interacted with their populations. From the early 1990s, research on international relations, war and peace, and security studies identified the growing problem of failing states. Such states are increasingly unable to implement the core functions that define the sovereignty norms. This article explores the state-building process of Kosovo with a focus on the political road taken from independence in February 2008 to the challenges Kosovo faces today. Kosovo still has substantial issues to address regarding core state functions in the development of prosperity, popular representation and security.
State Building Challenges and the European Integration Process: The Kosovo Case
Kosovo, a new state which is in the process of international recognition of its statehood, after the 1999 war, and until the declaration of independence in 2008, has faced a number of challenges during its efforts to build the democratic system and order. Following the declaration of independence and a considerable number of international recognitions, Kosovo’s new democratic institutions are taking their responsibilities for the country's integration into the European Union. This paper provides one overview of state building challenges and the European integration process of the Republic of Kosovo. Kosovo has its old and new history, which was decided by the great powers in London, Berlin, Paris, in Yalta and Potsdam, and later in Dayton and Rambouillet. The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical roots of the independence movement among Kosovo Albanians, until the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, and the state-creating challenges of the Kosovo state...
Kosovo: Between Western and Non-Western States
Florian Bieber and Nikolaos Tzifakis (eds), The Western Balkans in the World: Linkages and Relations with External Actors. London: Routledge., 2019
This chapter offers an overview of Kosovo’s relationship with western and non-western states. It argues that Kosovo’s external linkages are predominantly determined by the historical context of state formation which has forced Kosovo to pursue an inward-looking, pragmatic, and situational approach to foreign affairs. Kosovo’s journey to state-becoming required pragmatic navigation towards external actors permitting an unprecedented level of external intervention in shaping and influencing Kosovo’s policies in exchange for political and economic support. This chapter first examines Kosovo’s strategic entanglement with western states to demonstrate how the foreign policy of recognition and thrust for statebuilding have become the contextual bedrock for aligning fanatically with Euro-Atlantic community of states, organisations, and political agendas. The chapter then explores Kosovo’s relations with non-western states to illustrate how history, religion, and geography play a role in determining the nascent state’s relations with the rest of the word. In the final section, the chapter offers an outlook of Kosovo’s future entanglement with western and non-western states.
Despite the continuously increasing research on conditionality, socialisation and compliance dynamics of the local political leaders in the Western Balkans, the fragmented local agency and its complex relations with the EU remains an under-researched topic. This paper aims to fulfil this gap by offering a systematic analysis of ‘the local’ through the case of Kosovo. It aspires to complement the top-down Europeanisation/socialisation and rational adaptation perspectives with a critical perspective. The paper argues that a systematic analysis of the local agency and domestic dynamics would improve our understanding of some of the persistent problems of state-building and democratisation efforts in the Western Balkans by explaining why some norms and policies are resisted, and some others are supported under certain conditions. The investigation is based on the relevant literature, semi-structured interviews conducted in Kosovo and the analysis of policy documents, civil society reports and local newspaper archives. The findings show that the uneasy relations between the local groups and deeper problems of state weakness, such as lack of legitimacy, constantly pressurise the EU to redefine its state- and democracy building agenda in line with irreconcilable local priorities and expectations.
Three Essays on Kosovo - Essay III
Kosovo still represents a clear case of international state-building efforts in the 21 st century. In particular, international institutions like UN, NATO, EU along with individual countries have led state-building since the end of the conflict in 1999. The case of Kosovo is particularly important when addressing questions related to the transition from a centralized to a market economy; intervention and international legitimacy; collective trauma and dealing with the past as well as core difficulties faced by transitioning democracies. At first, state building in both Bosnia and Kosovo was primarily driven by the US. Gradually, the EU has taken over in both countries. 1 As for now, one of the main problems remain Kosovo's lack legitimacy in the north, which impedes the state's sovereignty. We will analyses key periods and actors that have influenced the establishment and development of the Republic of Kosovo.