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The 1980s caught Albanians in Kosova in interesting social, political, and psychological circumstances. Two diametrically opposed dogmatic dilemmas took shape: “illegal groups” - considerably supported by students - demanded the proclamation of the Republic of Kosova and/or Kosova’s unification with Albania. On the other side of the spectrum, “modernists” - gathering, among others, the political and academic elites - pushed for the improvement of rights of Kosovars guaranteed under the “brotherhood and unity” concept advocated within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). This paper outlines the nature of demonstrations that took place in March and April 1981 and the corresponding responses of political and academic elites. Stretching beyond symbolic academic reasons - demands for better food and dormitory conditions - the study points to the intense commitment of the students to their demands, often articulated in nationalistic terms. Was it inevitable that the structure of the SFRY would lead to those living in Kosova as a non-Slavic majority in a federation of “Southern Slavs” to articulate demands for national self-rule? It is necessary to highlight these political and social complexities through analytical approaches in order to track the students’ goals and to reexamine assumptions behind the “modernist” agenda. In that vein, the paper analyzes the conceptual connections and differences between student reactions and modernists’ positions during the historical period under discussion here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis considers the impact of the demonstrations that occurred in Kosovo in spring 1981. They shocked Federal Yugoslavia and re-opened the Kosovo question as an issue in European and international diplomacy. They simultaneously intensified and consolidated the Albanian national movement in Kosovo, although activists held differing views as to the best solution to the problem. Another result of the demonstrations was a deterioration in Albano–Yugoslav relations over territorial and nationalist issues. The “Kosovo Spring” placed Albania in conflict with Yugoslavia, which declared a state of emergency in Kosovo on 2 April 1981 and suppressed the demonstrations by force. The events in Kosovo had the effect of redefining the whole Albanian question. The maturity of the Albanian response led international opinion to take Albania more seriously. For its part, Albania was impelled to evaluate more highly the response of Western countries to events in Kosovo and initiate a more realistic approach to the West—albeit tentatively—despite the persistence of deep ideological differences. The demonstrations of 1981 had a substantial effect on Albanian state policy regarding Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is devoted to studying current strategies in the transformation of cultural landscape in postwar Kosovo. I regard cultural landscape, i.e. a piece of Earth's surface deliberately shaped by man, as an extension of the so-called socially constructed reality (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). In some cases this symbolization is a strategic part of a nation-building project, or just a way to declare one's own presence, identity, or affiliation. The creation of new heroes is one of the initial steps within the strategies of a nation-building process, as it forms an essential prerequisite for the feeling of a common and shared history. This article analyses the spectrum of personalities symbolically welcomed in Kosovo since the 1990s. The Republic of Kosovo is de jure a multi-ethnic society consisting of Albanian, Serbian, and other communities, and is presented as such to the international community. However, the current strategies of symbolic nation-building deeply contradict the declared aspirations to build a common state and national identity among all of the peoples living in Kosovo. My aim is to negotiate the strategies of memorialization in postwar Kosovo with a focus on this balancing between civic (as desired) and ethnic (as de facto realized) models of nation-building. The data for the study were collected during several fieldwork trips in Kosovo (2010-2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the period after 1999, the international community abrogated Serbia's sovereignty over Kosovo. It took responsibility for governing Kosovo and actively supported the development of autonomous Kosovar government institutions. Simultaneously, the Serbian authorities immediately started to rebuild Serbian government institutions in the parts of Kosovo that hosted a Serbian majority population. This article analyzes how this situation of parallel governance affects ethnic boundary strategies in the village of Gracanica, the largest Serbian village in central Kosovo. The article is based on evidence collected during fieldwork in Gracanica one year after Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008. In this period, the Kosovar government implemented a decentralization program, which would transform Gracanica into a Serb majority municipality. Using Andreas Wimmer's multilevel process theory on boundary making, the article argues that in the period studied, “the scripts of action” concerning how to deal with the Kosovar government do slowly change, but this is largely a pragmatic response and Kosovo Serbs still identify themselves with Serbia. Important explanatory factors for these changing local dynamics are the changes in institutional structures (less Belgrade, more Pristina), the changes in (the balance of) resources offered by either government at the local level, the characteristics of the local political networks, and the weakness of local leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I explore the nexus between genocide and secession. I argue, first, that legal ambiguity creates space for overlap, with genocide claims frequently proving to be the weapon of choice for relatively weak secessionist entities struggling to enhance their bargaining position and achieve international legal status. Using new data, I find that nearly three-quarters of pro-autonomy entities belonging to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) have made genocide allegations an important part of their struggle. Next, I use the three secessionist cases of South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia) and Kosovo (Yugoslavia) to analyze how genocide allegations alter local and international stances and significantly complicate the nature of conflict resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to assess the US interventionist approach in the Balkans in the 1990s. It examines the respective approach as it underwent changes towards a more pragmatic and coherent stance in three phases: the initial reluctance to intervene, the decisive engagement in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), and the closing engagement in the Kosovo campaign. In this respect, the US Balkans policy was chiefly consistent in its values from the start, but suffered from disparities between principles and practice and thus lacked appropriate modes of implementation. This specific lack was gradually reduced and a more consistent and responsive approach adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the persistence of news frames cross-nationally and over time by analyzing the international news agencies’ coverage of Kosovo’s status negotiations over a period of two years. The results suggest a congruency in international news agencies reporting, who mainly employ the ‘episodic frame’ and emphasize the ‘conflict’ nature of the issue. However, a major difference in frame choice emerged between western and non-western agencies, while news frames over the two-year period appeared to be static rather than dynamic. Overall, this study implies that event-oriented factors, such as professional norms, tend to drive the framing of international news. Yet these norms are embedded in the journalistic culture of the country where the news-people originate from, and this culture is becoming more homogeneous along with the process of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses policies concerning veterans of the guerilla army the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought in the Kosovo War of 1998-1999. It contrasts the policies of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which sought to create a multi-ethnic state, with the views of Kosovo nationalists. The author explores Kosovo's process of state building, veterans' benefits legislation, and memories of the war. Other topics include social welfare and social citizenship.

This article introduces a novel way of conceptualising variations of peace in post-war societies. The most common way of defining peace in the academic literature on war termination is to differentiate between those cases where there is a continuation or resumption of large-scale violence and those cases where violence has been terminated and peace, defined by the absence of war, has been established. Yet, a closer look at a number of countries where a peace agreement has been signed and peace is considered to prevail reveals a much more diverse picture. Beyond the absence of war, there are striking differences in terms of the character of peace that has followed. This article revisits the classical debates on peace and the notion of the Conflict Triangle as a useful theoretical construction for the study of armed conflicts. We develop a classification captured in a Peace Triangle, where post-settlement societies are categorised on the basis of three key dimensions: issues, behaviour, and attitudes. On the basis of such a differentiation, we illustrate the great diversity of peace beyond the absence of war in a number of post-settlement societies. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the different elements of the Peace Triangle, and the challenges they pose for establishing a sustainable peace, as well as the implications of this study for policy makers concerned with peacebuilding efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the right of self-determination in the post-Cold War era and analyzes the implications of the Kosovo Status Settlement for Tibet. The focus is on the Tibet Question, which refers to the political aspects of China's control over Tibet since 1950 and Tibet's right to territorial independence. The distinct concepts supported by choice theorists and remedial right theorists are mentioned. The changing concept of a self-determination right, the law of secession in the contexts of human rights violations and the right of self-determination, the justification of a right to external self-determination, and the international intervention to preserve territorial integrity in Kosovo are discussed.

The article discusses Kosovo and questions it raises about the concept of national sovereignty. Topics discussed include Jozep Broz Tito's rule in Yugoslavia, the subsequent rule of Slobodan Milosevic and its malign impact on Kosovo, the redrawing of national boundaries and transfers of populations following World War II, and the experience of certain Soviet republics following the demise of the Soviet Union. The author concludes that in the twenty-first century, the concept of a nation state seldom matches it reality.

This essay offers an analysis of the circulation of World War II and Holocaust analogies in discourses about American military involvement in Kosovo. The essay argues that the World War II/Holocaust analogy provided the public with a new vocabulary for understanding the situation in Kosovo. The essay uses Bill Clinton’s speeches about Kosovo during the first week of American intervention as a representative anecdote for discussing the analogy and its rhetorical force. The essay then probes the circulation of the analogy in other governmental, media, and public opinion outlets. By comparing Kosovo 1999 to Europe 1945, the analogy offers descriptive and prescriptive reasons for American involvement that encourage public approval of military intervention. The essay offers conclusions and implications of this analysis for the understanding of the relationships among rhetoric, public opinion, and international conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the political status of Kosovo is presented a case of path dependency. The article identifies a number critical junctures since summer 1999, arguing that there were a variety of options that would have led toward a settlement other than independence. These critical junctures included the October 2000 overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic; the March 2003 assassination of Zoran Đinđdic; the March 2005 indictment of Ramush Haradinaj; and the January 2007 Serbian parliamentary elections. Because of choices made primarily in Belgrade and Prishtina the process was driven toward a path that favoured independence. The article stresses the indeterminacy of the process at its start, as well as the importance of local agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the successes and failures of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervention in Kosovo in 1999. Specifically, the article examines the question of whether the use of military force to accomplish human good was successful, noting the history of Kosovo between 1999 and 2008.

From the beginning of United Nations peacebuilding in Kosovo in mid-1999, until today's transition to the institutions of self-government under European Union oversight, the interaction between external and local actors has been an extremely dynamic process; one significantly influenced by external peacebuilders' promises and policies of greater local ownership. Against this background, the paper aims to reconstruct classic problem-solving approaches for the analysis of post-war peacebuilding. Rather than concentrate primarily on the technical delivery of postwar reconstruction measures, the paper emphasizes interaction processes and dynamics between external and local actors and shows that local actors are far from powerless in the peacebuilding process. In so doing, the paper links the concept of local ownership to questions of the disputed legitimacy of peacebuilding in Kosovo. It is this drawing of boundaries between the local and the international which contributes to significant shifts in external-local peacebuilding interaction. The paper hypothesizes that the later significant local ownership is achieved and external authority transferred to local representatives, the more local actors tend to challenge the legitimacy of the peacebuilding agenda and engage in confrontation with international actors. It is the opening up of space for local politics which allows peacebuilding to continue to be considered legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author analyzes the legislative framework for the protection of minority communities in Kosovo, as it has developed from the periods before and after the declaration of independence, and its implementation in practice. She focuses in her study on four major issues: non-discrimination, education for minority communities, the use of languages, and effective participation, including issues of decentralization. The author comes to the following conclusions. First, in each field, quite advanced laws exist that in many respects are perfectly in line or even way ahead of the standards applied in other European countries. But implementation has been lacking so far. Second, on the institutional side, the author draws attention to the multitude of national (and international) actors dealing with minority issues, risking thereby an uncoordinated approach to minority issues and a failure to mainstream such matters. And, third, the reluctance of the Serb community to cooperate with the Kosovar authorities has further been identified as highly problematic, because true reconciliation requires a willingness to participate in interethnic cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various issues related to the U.S. role in the Kosovo war in 1999. The bombing campaign spearheaded by the U.S. forces paved the way for a new political order in Kosovo. Ever since the Vietnam War, political leaders in the U.S. have been determined to use force to promote their view of national interests. The article also highlights the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Kosovo War and the lackadaisical international response to the violence that engulfed East Timor.

The article discusses the nonviolent methods adopted by the Albanian majority in Kosovo, Serbia to protest the erosion of Kosovo's autonomy. Kosovo has a majority Albanian population. Estimates in 1993 put the Albanian population at 87.8% while Serbs made up 6.6% of Kosovo's two million residents. The peaceful campaign of the Albanians had two parts. The first was a campaign of strikes, protests and demonstrations which were suppressed by the Serbian paramilitary groups, police and army. Then the Albanian political leaders decided to cease this part of their campaign and resorted to anther campaign which involved noncooperation with Serbian authorities and institutions.