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The principle objective will be to explain the reasons behind a non-recognition of the statehood of Kosovo. This situation has led to international sanctions on Kosovo that prevent the maintenance of regular relations with some key actors on the world stage, as well as the threatening possible accession to European Union. Our premise is that some non-recognizing EU member states have adopted a new understanding of what constitutes 'nationhood' since a more pragmatic approach taken in the early 90s. Spain has been chosen as a case study, both due to its failure to recognize Kosovo, but also due to its hardening position, which has become even more extreme than that of Cyprus. We will assess the extent to which the domestic situation in Spain has affected actions taken in regard to Kosovo. This relationship will be shown by looking at the political discourse since 2007, covering the months before the Kosovo Unilateral of Declaration Independence (UDI), to the events of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU in the first semester of 2018. Parliamentary debates, official documents and press conferences will be analysed as the main sources of information, together with interviews being held between Spanish and Kosovar officials between 2014 and 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale is the property of Berghahn Books and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The central premise of ontological security theory is that states are ready to compromise their physical security and other important material gains in order to protect their ontological security. While the existing studies have primarily focused on how states defend or maintain their ontological security, little attention has been paid to critical situations that make states ontologically insecure in the first place. Drawing on the work of Anthony Giddens, I conceptualise critical situations in world politics as radical disjunctions that challenge the ability of collective actors to ‘go on’ by bringing into the realm of discursive consciousness four fundamental questions related to existence, finitude, relations and autobiography. The argument is illustrated in a case study of ontological insecurity produced in Serbia by the secession of Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adeptus is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slavic Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, it did so not as a nation-state, but as a “state of communities,” self-defining as multiethnic, diverse, and committed to extensive rights for minorities. In this paper, this choice is understood as a response to a dual legitimation problem. Kosovo experienced both an external legitimation challenge, regarding its contested statehood internationally, and an internal one, vis-à-vis its Serb minority. The focus on diversity and minority rights was expected to confer legitimacy on the state both externally and internally. International state-builders and the domestic political elite in post-conflict Kosovo both pursued this strategy. However, it inadvertently created an additional internal legitimation challenge, this time from within Kosovo’s majority Albanian population. This dynamic is illustrated by the opposition movement “Lëvizja Vetëvendosje” (Self-Determination Movement), which rejects the framing of Kosovo as first and foremost a multiethnic state. The movement’s counter-narrative represents an additional internal legitimation challenge to the new state. This paper thus finds that internationally endorsed “diversity management” through minority rights did not deliver as a panacea for the legitimacy dilemmas of the post-conflict polity. On the contrary, the “state of communities” continues to be contested by both majority and minority groups in Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an explanation for the Kosovo secession from Serbia/Yugoslavia. This is achieved by disaggregating the 'reality' of the state through the process tracing method, which compares the cases of the Tito and Milosevic triangles of accommodation practices. The focus is on the games of survival practiced at the middle levels ofpolitical life, around the local state policy implementer and the consequences of his removal. This paper examines not only why, but how the secession of Kosovo occurred when it did. It shows that the strength of authoritarianism or the regime-oppression capability is not what held the Serbia and Kosovo together; rather, it was the policies of accommodations which one leader did better than the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of Cold War, the system of United Nations (UN) Peace Missions assumed new proportions, by adjusting the nature of political developments, which characterized the international relations stage in this period. In the peace-keeping agenda of these missions, special focus was given to issues related to "international state-building" in the post-conflict situations, as well as attempts to prevent and manage consequences of the state's failure. In pursuit of these goals and as part of this agenda, it is believed that liberal western values, especially as part of the "liberal peace thesis", have become ever more widespread and commonplace. The models of state-building, according to this thesis, include combination of values of liberal democracy and principles of the market economy, as precondition to overall social development, which would contribute to long-term peace. According to this conception. According to this conception, it is clear that the transitional process from war to peace and that of state-building, in addition to the political dimensions, also has significant economic dimensions. Therefore, the authors of this study are focused on and aim to analyze and explain the role the economic sector plays in the construction and functioning of the state system in a post-conflict society, as is the case of Kosovo. At the contextual level, the study consists of understanding the role played by UNMIK, as international administration, in the direction of this sector. One part of the study is dedicated to analysing immediate and long-term strategies and approaches of the peacekeeping mission, aimed at reconstruction, i.e. the development of the economic sector from scratch, which would impact directly and indirectly on the creation of an enabling socio-political environment for a lasting peace. But the rest of the study focuses on macroeconomic indicators such as GDP level, monetary policy, as well as import and export situation (trade balance, which realistically reflects the current status of economic development in Kosovo, as well as for measuring the gap between the expected targets and achieved concrete results. This means that these indicators reflect the degree of success or failure of the mission in relation to the fulfillment of this objective. Finally, by analysing the previous and current results, we will try to explain development trends of Kosovo's economy in the short-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Until 1999, Kosovo was a little-known province of Serbia. NATO's intervention, however, changed this. Suddenly, everyone was talking about Kosovo and the plight of the Kosovo Albanians. Today, Kosovo is no longer a major talking point; few authors are now writing about post-independence Kosovo and the many challenges that confront the young state. Particularly striking is the relative absence of scholarly writings that discuss the Gordian knot of northern Kosovo. Seeking to rectify this neglect, this article has three core aims: to provide new empirical insights into the situation on the ground in northern Kosovo, to explore Serb and Albanian viewpoints regarding the status of the north (and in particular to examine Serb fears and concerns) and to discuss possible solutions. It argues that granting the north a special, autonomous status within Kosovo is the ultimate way to resolve the “northern problem,” and indeed this now seems the most likely solution following the recent conclusion of the First Agreement on Principles Governing the Normalization of Relations. This research is based on five weeks of fieldwork in Kosovo in July and August 2012. During this time, the author conducted 56 semi-structured interviews, 29 of which took place in northern Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Kosovo region was always the "cause of fight" between Serbians and Albanians, Kosovo becoming a long source of hate between the two populations. The Serbians considered Kosovo the "Saint Land", some kind of Jerusalem. They provided historical arguments as well: they were saying that the territory of Kosovo province was situated in the centre of their medieval empire; on this territory were the main religious "flags", which helped the Serbians to achieve their own cultural identity, in this region being situated their main monasteries built during the medieval period. The Serbian writer Dobrico Ćosić stated in 1999 that Kosovo province "is not only a piece of land, it represents the Serbian identity itself. With the loss of Kosovo... the Serbian people was mutilated". In this study, a range of observations are provided on etymology, a brief history, as well as the causes which determined the beginning of conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the new country of Kosovo declared its independence in 2008 it received extensive, but fleeting, international news coverage. This study seeks to provide insight into how an international news event was orchestrated by participants and how news coverage was planned and implemented by international media. We do so by investigating factors initiating, enabling, shaping, and limiting the global news coverage of this story. Particular attention is paid to the close relationship between local ‘fixers’ and media representatives, which is instrumental in most international news coverage, but which has received little scholarly examination; and to the influential role of the UK-based international television news agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For 60 years, the international community has limited the right of territories to gain independence without the permission of the 'parent state.' Such limits were, however, challenged when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, in February 2008. As a result, Belgrade referred the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On 22 July 2010, it came back with its long-awaited decision. Taking a narrow view of the question, the majority argued that, in general, declarations of independence, as mere statements, do not violate international law unless stated otherwise by the Security Council. Thus, Kosovo's declaration of independence cannot be considered as being wholly 'unique' - as those states that supported its statehood have claimed. On the key questions of whether Kosovo's secession is legal, or if it is even a state, they chose to avoid controversy. On these points, the international community is no clearer now than it was before the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After Kosovo's independence, which is recognized by numerous members of International Society; a new wave of discussions started about the entities like TRNC, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Chechnya, and Transylvania, Quebec which share similar time of life with Kosovo. The main discussions re flamed from Kosovo's independence were essentially on real politics, contradictions to law, injustice and double standards. NATO's Kosovo intervention supposedly based on humanitarian ground, brought a new situation to be reexamined and re judged on not only ethical, political and humanitarian grounds but also on international law. Besides a threat to international security and peace, events in Kosovo were seen as a humanitarian disaster which can not be ignored. Because of this, a view emerged in academic and political circles which do not find it necessary anymore to discuss the issue related to international law. Results of this view which sees domestic or international law negligible or violable when it finds it legitimate should be evaluated very carefully. Just as NATO's Kosovo intervention and following independence, Turkey's Cyprus Intervention and following independence of TRNC caused great debates on International Law. Despite both the intervention and the independence have serious legal, political and moral grounds, it has not been accepted by the international community. The main objective of this paper is to compare two long standing issues, namely Kosovo and Cyprus, according to justice and international law. In the first stage, Kosovo and Cyprus operations will be examined through "just war" theory, and evaluated they suit the principles. In the second stage, "just war" theory and principles will be implemented to Kosovo's and TRNC's independence in the name of "just secession/independence". Arguments on both the operations and the independence decisions will be supported by international law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the preventive diplomacy of Slovenia applied during the period Kosovo was preparing to declare its independence, as well as in the months that followed. In the first half of 2008, when the question of independence was the most pressing and when independence was finally declared, Slovenia was performing one of the most demanding foreign policy tasks in its history - presiding over the EU Council. The methodology is based on two methods: first, on an analysis of press releases of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia; and second, on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with high-ranking Slovenian diplomats who were actively engaged in preventive diplomacy in the case of Kosovo. The analysis shows that Slovenia exercised a continuous "policy of balancing" between Kosovo and Serbia, in constant co-ordination with some influential EU countries, as well as with the USA and the Russian Federation. Slovenia's quite active inclusion in that process was possible because of the credibility the country enjoys in South-east Europe, as well as the quality of information about Kosovo's declaration of independence Slovenia had. However, it must be noted that Slovenia was left out of certain negotiations on Kosovo's declaration of independence despite the fact that it was presiding over the EU Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]