Three Essays on Kosovo - Essay III (original) (raw)
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Kosovo's challenges to the new international order
inter-disciplinary.net
Three years after its declaration of Independence, Kosovo remains an isolated state in the Eastern Europe, as third of the world's countries doesn't recognize it yet. Without being able to candidate as a member of any international organization and with a low level of diplomatic interactions with the rest of the world, Kosovo is facing both political and social issues, which are hard to overcome.
KOSOVO: THE UNPRECEDENTED STATE
This paper argues that Kosovo’s quest to independence is a unique case, hence it entitles Kosovo to break independent without violating international law. The case made here is based on a number of arguments, from the specific political dynamics that have brought Kosovo to this day, its legal and moral right to state succession from former Yugoslavia as a federal entity, to the attempted genocide and consistent brutal treatment of the Albanian majority for decades. For most analysts, the dilemma is no longer “whether” Kosovo will become independent, but “when” and “how”. UNOSEK’s Comprehensive Proposal1 for the future status has helped the vast majority of international stakeholders to converge around a consensual position – supervised independence. Now, many governments publicly recognized independence as the only viable solution for Kosovo. With the full support of the United States and most EU countries, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has fully endorsed the outcome as outlined in Ahtisaari’s proposed settlement. The case here highlights a set of circumstances that distinguish Kosovo’s claim for independence from other entities potentially seeking statehood. During the last eight years Kosovo has functioned as an international protectorate. Prior to that, Kosovo’s majority population has been subject to systematic violations of human rights, which culminated with ethnic cleansing, finally brought to an end via forceful humanitarian intervention. For decades under former Yugoslavia, Kosovo was an autonomous province within the Republic of Serbia and at the same time a constitutive unit of the Yugoslav Federation as other republics, including the right to veto.
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...
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.
The making of a failed state: the case of Kosovo
European View, 2011
The status of Kosovo remains an issue more than three years after its unilateral declaration of independence. Since then, Kosovo has been maintained, as a state, by an international presence and commitment. This article suggests that the history of this commitment has been the cause of state failure and that we are at a critical juncture in the future of this state.
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.
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.
This paper describes and analyses the role of the International Community in Kosovo’s road from an ex-Yugoslav province in 1987 to independence in 2008. This paper is based on the idea that without the help of the International Community—chiefly the United States and select European countries—Kosovo's desire for independence from Yugoslavia (later Serbia) would remain just a dream for Kosovo and its people. Though the International Community has been involved in Kosovo for over two decades, its role has not always been pro-independence and/or pro-Kosovo. During these two decades (starting roughly in 1990) it has played an important and often complex role in Kosovo and the Balkans in general. The foreign military and diplomatic intervention in Kosovo was a successful multilateral undertaking that achieved two primary goals: a) it stopped the bloody war in Kosovo; b) it helped stabilize Kosovo and the Balkans by channeling energy away from war and destruction and directing it to reconstruction and institutional development. Kosovo is considered a successful example of modern, 21st century “humanitarian intervention”, as well as a nation-building enterprise. Successful though it was, this intervention and subsequent transition left a few questions open. This paper addresses the question: Why was the Kosovo issue important enough to warrant massive foreign military intervention at a huge cost? Related to this overarching question are two sub questions: What successful formula—if any—did the International Community implement to ensure a smooth and peaceful transition from war to post-war reconstruction and development? What lessons and useful knowledge can we derive from the example of Kosovo, what are these successful mechanisms, and can they be applied to other conflict areas?