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The Complex Nature and Implications of International Engagement after Kosovo's Independence

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13698249.2011.576158

1743-968X

Gëzim Visoka, Grace Bolton,

Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics

Abstract This article examines the implications of two distinct phases of international engagement in Kosovo. We argue that a number of flaws developed during UNMIK's administration (1999–2008), which continue to undermine Kosovo's stability. We then disentangle the complex inter-institutional relations between ICO, EULEX, UNMIK and the OSCE. Indeed, their incompatible positions towards Kosovo's status results in a lack of clarity, coordination and coherence that weaken Kosovo within four policy areas: Kosovo's international recognition and participation, the rule of law, inter-ethnic relations and the fate of North Kosovo. While these shortcomings could be viewed as 'unintended consequences', we argue more broadly that the Kosovo case illustrates the limits of liberal peacebuilding and the tensions and implications of strategic peacebuilding. Notes 1. See Richard Caplan, 'International Diplomacy and the Crisis in Kosovo', International Affairs 74/4 (1998) pp.745–61; Adam Roberts, 'NATO's "Humanitarian War" over Kosovo', Survival 41/3 (1999) pp.102–03; Albrecht Schnabel and Ramesh Thakur (eds), Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention: Selective Indignation, Collective Action, and International Citizenship (Tokyo: UNUP 2000); Florian Bieber and Zidas Daskalovski (eds), Understanding War in Kosovo (London: Frank Cass 2003); David Chandler, From Kosovo to Kabul and Beyond Human Rights and International Intervention (London: Pluto Press 2006); Iain King and Whit Mason, Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (London: Hurst & Company 2006); Alexandra Gheciu, 'International Norms, Power and the Politics of International Administration: The Kosovo Case', Geopolitics 10/1 (2005) pp.121–46; Oisín Tansey and Dominik Zaum, 'Muddling Through in Kosovo', Survival 51/1 (2009) pp.13–20. 2. For a comprehensive account of the different motivations of the international community to engage in post-conflict societies, see Michael E. Brown (ed.), The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1996); Jarad Chopra, Peace-Maintenance: The Evolution of International Political Authority (London: Routledge 1999); Simon Chesterman, You, the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004); Ramesh Thakur, The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to Protect (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2006); Katharina P. Coleman, International Organisations and Peace Enforcement: The Politics of International Legitimacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007); Louise Andersen, Bjørn Møller and Finn Stepputat (eds), Fragile States and Insecure People?: Violence, Security, and Statehood in the Twenty-First Century (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan 2007); Roland Paris and Timothy D. Sisk (eds), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (London: Routledge 2009); Oliver P. Richmond (ed.), Palgrave Advances in Peacebuilding (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan 2010); David Chandler, International Statebuilding: The Raise of Post-Liberal Governance (London: Routledge 2010). 3. For an overview of UNMIK mandate, see UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) approved on 10 Jun. 1999 and the UNMIK Regulation 1999/1, On the Authority of Interim Administration in Kosovo 25 Jul. 1999. For the aftermaths performance of UNMIK, see the quartile UN Secretary General reports presented to the UN Security Council. 4. Oliver P. Richmond, Peace in International Relations (London: Routledge 2008) p.74. 5. UNMIK, UNMIK Regulation 2001/9, On a Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo 15 May 2001. 6. Compare two different perspectives: Marc Weller, Contested Statehood: Kosovo Struggle for Independence (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008) and James Ker-Lindsay, Kosovo: The Path to Contested Statehood in the Balkans (London: I.B. Tauris 2009). 7. UN Security Council, 'Report of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Kosovo's Future Status', S/2007/168, 26 Mar. 2007. 8. Kosovo Declaration of Independence, 17 Feb. 2008, online at < www.assembly-kosova.org/?cid = 2,128,1635>, accessed 14 Dec. 2010. 9. For a more detailed discussion, see Grace Bolton and Gezim Visoka, 'Recognizing Kosovo's Independence: Remedial Secession or Earned Sovereignty?' Occasional Paper 11/10 (Oxford: SESSOX 2010). 10. Dominik Zaum, Sovereignty Paradox: The Norms and Politics of International Statebuilding (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007) p.16. 11. James R. Hooper and Paul R. Williams, 'Earned Sovereignty: The Political Dimension', Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 31(2002–03) pp.355–72. 12. Stephen Krasner, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1999) p.3. 13. Roland Paris, 'Peacebuilding and the Limits of Liberal Internationalism', International Security 22/2 (1997) p.74. 14. Christopher Bickerton, 'State-building: Exporting State Failure' in Christopher Bickerton, Philip Cunliffe and Alexander Gourevitch (eds) Politics Without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations (London: Routledge 2006) p.96. 15. Zaum (note 10) p.241; Adem Beha and Gezim Visoka, 'Human Security as "Ethnic Security" in Kosovo', Human Security Perspectives 7/1 (2010) pp.83–101. 16. Roland Paris and Timothy D. Sisk, Managing Contradictions: The Inherent Dilemmas of Postwar Statebuilding (New York: IPA 2007) p.6. 17. See Oliver P. Richmond, 'Resistance and the Post-liberal Peace', Millennium – Journal of International Studies 38/3 (2010) pp.665–92; Chandler (note 2); Daniel Philpott and Gerard F. Powers (eds), Strategies of Peace: Transforming Conflict in a Violent World (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010). 18. Richmond (note 17). 19. Oliver P. Richmond, 'Introduction' in Oliver P. Richmond (ed.) Palgrave Advances in Peacebuilding: Critical Developments and Approaches (Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan 2010) pp.1–2. 20. King and Mason (note 1) pp.241–56. 21. King and Mason (note 1), pp.137–88. 22. Jen Narten, 'Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and Local Ownership: Dynamics of External-Local Interaction in Kosovo under United Nations Administration', Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 2/3 (2008) pp.369–90. 23. 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