Europe’s nightmare: The struggle for Kosovo

Book abstract:

Based on an extensive research project which included scouring Serbo-Croatian, Albanian and Russian newspapers, and a personal visit to a Macedonian refugee camp in 1999 the author of this book, Miron Rezun, seeks to provide an objective, although not dispassionate, assessment of the Kosovo conflict.

Highlighting the number of players involved in the Balkans situation and drawing on a wealth of information, the book follows a chronological path to trace the Kosovo conflict from beginning to end. The background goes as far back as the 14th Century and discusses in detail the impact of the two World Wars and the Tito and post-Tito Yugoslavia. It then examines the attempts at peaceful negotiations such as the Rambouillet accord before moving on the actual bombing of Serbia and its aftermath. Rezun also considers what would have happened if it had come to a ground war. The fourth chapter discusses the aftermath of the war and particularly the resurfacing of old problems throughout Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The next chapter moves beyond Kosovo to examine the global implications of the conflict from two perspectives. Firstly in the way the war has influenced international action in other conflicts such as East Timor and Chechenya and secondly by assessing the role of groupings such as the United Nations and Europe, as well as countries like Russia and China. The final chapter discuss the war crimes tribunal and sums up the lesson to be learned from Kosovo and the entry of morality and interdependent economics into international politics.

This book offers international policymakers, members of lobbying groups and those with a particular interest in the Balkans situation a detailed and well-balanced overview of the Kosovo conflict, further enhanced by illustrations and a narrative style which embrace both the clear facts as well as the individual stories of Kosovo.

Miron Rezun teaches political science and the economics of transition at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.