The newly-created Republic of Kosovo has had a tortured history, having suffered from geographic isolation, economic underdevelopment, and political repression. A major source of instability has been the conflict between the Albanian-speaking majority and a Serb minority, as well as domination by the neighboring Republic of Serbia. These festering problems culminated in an extended guerrilla war during the 1990s, which ended when the United States and its NATO allies intervened on the side of the ethnic Albanians against Serbia, leading to Kosovo's de facto independence in 1999 and then its official independence as a new state in 2008. The country remains mired in social and political problems, however, and is run effectively as an international protectorate, supervised by a series of multinational peacekeeping forces.
Kosovo and Serbia addresses contemporary political issues in Kosovo, placing them in historical context. This edited volume consists of ten separate chapters by both Albanian-speaking and Serbian-speaking academics, as well as an introductory overview by the editors. The topics range from the historical genesis of the Serb-Albanian conflict to more contemporary issues of political institution building, as well as international efforts at assisting Kosovar reconstruction from war. There is an emphasis on the need for Kosovo to resolve, or at least attenuate, its ethnic and political problems in order to prepare for eventual inclusion into the European Union.
The volume does acknowledge Kosovo's painful history, with a long record of human rights violations, massacres, and ethnic cleansings, typically undertaken by the ethnic Serbs against the Albanians, but at times with the Albanians acting to oppress the Serbs (and also the Roma). The historical context of inter-ethnic violence is explored in chapters by Veljko Vujačić, Arben Qirezi, and Tanja Pavlov. Yet, the overall emphasis is on the need for Kosovo to move beyond this conflictual history in order to establish itself as a functioning state. A repeated theme is the need for interethnic conciliation between Serbs and Albanians, and this theme is reflected in the interethnic character of the contributors.
Another major theme is international efforts to promote nation-building in Kosovo, most notably by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX, which is discussed by Mina Zirojević. Other international peacekeeping and aid missions, including the United Nations Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK) and the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) are also discussed, though more briefly. Official European Union and Russian policy in Kosovo is analyzed by Branislav Radeljić; EU efforts at economic cooperation with Kosovo and Serbia are assessed by Gazmend Quorraj; and general issues of state-building are assessed by Ilire Agimi.
Despite its title, the book is focused mainly on Kosovo itself, with discussions of the Republic of Serbia being relegated to secondary importance, and these mostly focus on Serbia's historical relationship with Kosovo. But the Republic of Serbia nevertheless remains a basic part of Kosovo's history and is thus vital to the overall story. Accordingly, chapters by Veljko Vujačić, Arben Qirezi, and Dušan Spasojević examine Serbia's longstanding role in Kosovo, both before Kosovo gained independence in 2008 and after. There is an emphasis on the necessity to create normal diplomatic and commercial ties between Kosovo and Serbia, despite their past history of conflict, as discussed in chapters by Gazmend Qorraj and Leandrit I. Mehmeti.
The analytical focus of the various chapters tends to be narrow, treating international tutelage in Kosovo as a technical undertaking. Larger political issues are for the most part ignored, especially with regard to the role of the United States and its allies. Noam Chomsky claims that US and NATO policy have needlessly exacerbated ethnic violence and human rights abuses in Kosovo by undercutting diplomatic possibilities for resolving ethnic conflict. David Rieff argues that international interventions in Kosovo amount to a modernized form of colonialism, superficially justified by humanitarian motives, similar to the White Man's Burden of an earlier era. Numerous writers, including Carla del Ponte, have criticized international organizations in Kosovo for asymmetrically favoring specific political groups in Kosovo, at the expense of their adversaries, and thus adversely affecting the prospects for ethnic conciliation. These larger issues are unaddressed by the contributors to Kosovo and Serbia, who focus instead on relatively minor points of detail. One senses that the contributors were careful to avoid offending anyone—but the result of this caution is blandly-written analyses, which collectively make for unexciting reading.
Several of the contributors assume that association with the European Union is a worthy objective for Kosovo and Serbia, and that the EU is a fundamentally benign entity. Evidence to the contrary is ignored. After the Great Recession in 2008, the EU has been instrumental in imposing economic austerity on Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, at considerable human cost, a point repeatedly noted by both left-wing and right-wing critics of the Union. Some of the EU's longstanding members have questioned whether membership has been a net positive at all, a view that surely influenced Great Britain's decision, following the recent Brexit vote, to exit the organization. Once again, the contributors to Kosovo and Serbia fail to consider these larger issues, while they simply assume that association with the EU will bring benefits.
Overall, the ten chapters in Kosovo and Serbia present useful if somewhat modest contributions to the scholarship on Balkan history and politics.
