Table of contents: 1. Introduction: Kosovo and the International Community Aidan Hehir 2. Responding to Kosovo's Call for Humanitarian Intervention: Public Opinion, Partisanship, and Policy Objectives Alynna J. Lyon & Mary Fran T. Malone 3. Kosovo and the Advent of Sovereignty as Responsibility Alex Bellamy 4. Conflicting Rules: Global Constitutionalism and the Kosovo Intervention Anthony F. Lang, Jr 5. De Facto States in the Balkans: Shared Governance versus Ethnic Sovereignty in Republika Srpska and Kosovo Rick Fawn & Oliver P. Richmond 6. Policing the State of Exception in Kosovo Barry J. Ryan 7. Explaining the International Administration's Failures in the Security and Justice Areas Giovanna Bono 8. Kosovo -- The Final Frontier? From Transitional Administration to Transitional Statehood James Gow 9. Kosovo, Sovereignty and the Subversion of UN Authority James Kerr-Lindsey 10. Microcosm, Guinea Pig or Sui Generis? Assessing International Engagement with Kosovo Aidan Hehir Appendix: Interview with Dr Fatmir Sejdiu, President of the Republic of Kosovo

The Kosovo conflict has the potential to redraw the landscape of international politics, with significant ramifications for the UN, major powers, regional organizations, and the way in which we understand and interpret world politics. Can the veto now effectively be circumvented to launch selective enforcement operations? Can the humanitarian imperative be reconciled with the principle of state sovereignty? This book offers interpretations of the Kosovo crisis from numerous perspectives: the conflict-parties, NATO allies, the immediate region surrounding the conflict, and further afield. Country perspectives are followed by scholarly analyses of the longer-term normative, operational, and structural consequences of the Kosovo crisis for world politics.

NATO's air operation against Yugoslavia, undertaken with a view to helping the Kosovo Albanians resist genocide and ethnic cleansing, confronted the international community with a bitter dilemma. In Europe, the choice either to tolerate massive violations of human rights or to infringe the principle of non-use of force, given the absence of explicit authorization by the Security Council, was a challenge never before encountered since the new world order was ushered in by the Charter of the United Nations. This book, a collection of legal essays which emerged from a meeting of members of the French, German, and Polish societies of international law, not only attempts to analyze the Kosovo war from the viewpoint of humanitarian intervention based on the failure of the Rambouillet conference, but also intends to provide an overall picture of the responsibilities incumbent on the international community. Starting with the lifting of Kosovo's autonomy by the Yugoslav federal authorities in 1989/90, it follows the tragic events step by step. Not only are the crimes committed by Yugoslav military units and police as well as by the Kosovo Liberation Army listed in specific detail, an inquiry is also made into NATO's compliance with the applicable standards of humanitarian law. The book concludes with an examination of the future of the province in light of Security Council resolution 1244 of 1999 and the Stability Pact adopted to ensure economic recovery of the entire region.

The war in Kosovo was a turning point: NATO deployed its armed forces in war for the first time, and placed the controversial doctrine of 'humanitarian intervention' squarely in the world's eye. It was an armed intervention for the purpose of implementing Security Council resolutions-but without Security Council authorization.This report tries to answer a number of burning questions, such as why the international community was unable to act earlier and prevent the escalation of the conflict, as well as focusing on the capacity of the United Nations to act as global peacekeeper.The Commission recommends a new status for Kosovo, 'conditional independence', with the goal of lasting peace and security for Kosovo-and for the Balkan region in general. But many of the conslusions may be beneficially applied to conflicts the world-over.

In June 1999, after three months of NATO air strikes had driven Serbian forces back from the province of Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council authorized creation of an interim civilian administration. Under this mandate, the UN was empowered to coordinate reconstruction, maintain law and order, protect human rights, and create democratic institutions. Six years later, the UN's special envoy to Kosovo, Kai Eide, described the state of Kosovo: "The current economic situation remains bleak.... respect for rule of law is inadequately entrenched and the mechanisms to enforce it are not sufficiently developed.... with regard to the foundation of a multiethnic society, the situation is grim."In Peace at Any Price, Iain King and Whit Mason describe why, despite an unprecedented commitment of resources, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), supported militarily by NATO, has failed to achieve its goals. Their in-depth account is personal and passionate yet analytical and tightly argued. Both authors served with UNMIK and believe that the international community has a duty to intervene in regional conflicts, but they suggest that Kosovo reveals the difficult challenges inherent in such interventions. They also identify avoidable mistakes made at nearly every juncture by the UN and NATO. We can be sure that the international community will be called on to intervene again to restore the peace of shattered countries. The lessons of Kosovo, cogently presented in Peace at Any Price, will be critically important to those charged with future missions.

This book was first published in 2001. The Kosovo Conflict and International Law provides international lawyers, scholars and students with access to material on the conflict in Kosovo. As well as the basic material relating to Kosovo's status in Yugoslavia before 1999, this volume reproduces the significant documentation on the following issues: the development of the human rights situation, the diplomatic efforts for the settlement of the crisis, the military action against Yugoslavia and the international community's response, court action with regard to the conflict, and the implementation of the principles for a political solution with an international civil and security presence in Kosovo. Dr Krieger's analytical introduction provides the historical and political context as well as an overview of the various legal aspects of the conflict. A chronology and detailed index make the documents more accessible.

Despite calls for the decolonisation of knowledge, scholars who come from conflict-affected societies remained marginalised, excluded from the examination of the politics and impacts of liberal interventionism. This edited volume gives local scholars a platform from which they critically examine different aspects of liberal interventionism and statebuilding in Kosovo. Drawing on situational epistemologies and grounded approaches, the chapters in this book interrogate a wide range of themes, including: the politics of local resistance; the uneven relationship between international statebuilders and local subjects; faking of local ownership of security sector reform and the rule of law; heuristic and practical limits of interventionism, as well as the subjugated voices in statebuilding process, such as minorities and women. The book finds that the local is not antidote to the liberal, and that local perspectives are not monolithic. Yet, local critiques of statebuilding do not seek to generate replicable knowledge; rather they prefer generating situational and context-specific knowledge be that to resolve problems or uncover the unresolved problems. The book seeks to contribute to critical peace and conflict studies by (re)turning the local turn to local scholars who come from conflict-affected societies and who have themselves experienced the transition from war to peace. This book, voted one of the top 10 books of 2020 by International Affairs, is essential reading for students and scholars of peace- and state-building, conflict studies and international relations.