. Jean Baudrillard’s diagnosis of the Gulf War also applies to this latest expression of organised violence in contemporary politics. 2 This is not to deny that death and destruction defined the reality in Kosovo and Serbia in the first half of 1999. After all, NATO planes delivered large amounts of ordnance upon targets in this area, destroying both military and civilian infrastructure; killing civilians as well as soldiers. And
In the eyes of some observers, the Kosovo crisis posed the greatest threat to relations between Russia and NATO since the end of the Cold War. It also, according to some, seemingly demonstrated the impotence and marginalisation of Russia as an actor in European security affairs. In order to test and explore the validity of these propositions the discussions in this chapter first chart the course of
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has been significantly reoriented and retooled across the board. This process of change has been captured under two main labels. Internal adaptation is NATO-speak for looking at how the institution works, and whether it can be made to work better and more effectively. The process has embraced the possibility of creating procedures and structures whereby European member
NATO’s employment of military power against the government of Slobodan Milosevic over Kosovo has been among the most controversial aspects of the Alliance’s involvement in South East Europe since the end of the Cold War. The air operations between March and June 1999 have been variously described as war, ‘humanitarian war’, ‘virtual war’, intervention and ‘humanitarian intervention’ by the conflict
ICRC held a roundtable in Geneva on ‘Translating humanitarian law into military tactics’. The aim was to consider how to conduct military operations within the limits of IHL and, in particular, to ponder appropriate, effective and yet legally acceptable rules of armed engagement. The four panellists included two military legal advisors (from NATO and the United States) and a colonel. While this may seem extremely cynical, the effort to better incorporate IHL into military
: Hurst ). Mazurana , D. and Donnelly , P. ( 2017 ), Stop the Sexual Assault against Humanitarian and Development Aid Workers Feinstein International Center Somerville, MA . Médecins Sans Frontières International Movement ( 2013 ), Famine and Forced Relocations in Ethiopia 1984–1986 MSF Speaks Out . Médecins Sans Frontières International Movement ( 2014a ), Violence against Kosovar Albanians, NATO’s Intervention 1998–1999 MSF Speaks Out . Médecins Sans Frontières International Movement ( 2014b ), War Crimes and Politics
violence between its two main ethnic groups or the ethics and legality of the NATO intervention there in 1999. Unlike other civil wars, the economic dynamics of this conflict have received much less attention in terms of academic investigations into the political-economy of conflict. However, the same economic processes and relationships which in both academic and policy circles are cited as impacting more ‘infamous’ war economies, such as those in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, have been well documented by aid practitioners and policy makers as having impacted upon the
, ethnic Albanians became almost entirely absent from formal judicial and security structures. The police force and the judiciary in Kosovo became dominated ethnically and politically by Serbs and the Serbian government, leading ethnic Albanians to view these institutions as tools of oppression. The NATO bombing in 1999 led to a nearly complete withdrawal of Serbian personnel from RoL institutions and many of the buildings that housed legal and security actors were left demolished by the fighting. NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) played an important, although
following the end of the NATO campaign. The new service was operational by the end of July 1999 and within months the UCS was managing border crossings with Albania and Macedonia as well as at the airport in Pristina. Borders with Serbia and Montenegro were initially monitored by KFOR for security reasons, but the UCS began monitoring these points in 2001. Like other institutions in Kosovo, 139 4062 building a peace economy_2652Prelims 25/11/2013 15:06 Page 140 Building a peace economy? the customs service was not simply reformed but created as a new institution. Many
in Latin America and Central Asia. While illustrating limited degrees of success, statistical evidence requires us to remain sceptical of the DSI’s effectiveness in this field. Reports on the growth of the opium trade in Afghanistan point to the inability of the NATO coalition to eradicate this fundamental structure of Afghanistan’s war economy; while there are reports of overall reductions in some parts of the country, many areas, including those with the greatest levels of violence, continue to register high or even increased levels of production. Reports from