Introduction

Abstract

Once a nearly forgotten corner of southeastern Europe, Kosovo has become a touchstone of the transformation of international politics at the turn of the twenty-first century. In spring 1999 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) waged a 78-day campaign of airstrikes against the Republic of Serbia over the province. Ostensibly aimed at ending the ethnic violence that the Milosevic regime was directing toward the province’s majority Albanian population, the action was the most aggressive instance of humanitarian intervention up to that time. For liberal idealists like Vaclav Havel, the NATO intervention was the first war waged “in the name of principles and values (1999).” For others, the NATO action was an especially dangerous example of Western ideological overreach (Chomsky 2000). From either perspective, Kosovo set a precedent. For those who supported the intervention, the NATO airstrikes were the first step toward dismantling sovereignty as a shield behind which perpetrators of massive human rights violations could hide. On the opposite side, the intervention was perceived as the triumph of military force over international law. In either case, Kosovo became shorthand for a transformation in international relations.