Kosovo : perceptions of war and its aftermath / edited by Mary Buckley and Sally N. Cummings.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Buckley, Mary (Mary E. A.)

Cummings, Sally N.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kosovo (Republic)--History--Civil War, 1998---Foreign public opinion.

Kosovo (Republic).

History.

Geopolitics--Balkan Peninsula.

Geopolitics.

Balkan Peninsula.

National security--Europe.

National security.

Europe.

Physical Description:

xv, 288 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, 2001.

Summary:

Nato intervention in Kosovo marked a major turning point in post-Cold War international relations. While some Western commentators argued that it was the first war to be fought on purely moral grounds, Serbian, Russian and Chinese assessments were sharply different.

This highly original addition to the literature on Kosovo highlights the importance of perspective to an understanding of both the causes and consequences of war. It makes clear that the conceptual lenses, paradigms or frameworks through which political actors view reality in turn affect their understanding of the behaviour of others and their reactions to it. The authors, a team of regional experts on the countries covered, examine the way that the war has been understood in countries involved in and peripheral to the conflict. Their aim is to provide a broad yet highly nuanced picture of this focal point of Balkan unrest.

The book opens with an introduction to the historical and regional context of the conflict. The authors go on to present 12 case studies: Serbia, former Yugoslav republics, USA, Britain. France, Germany, Italy, Central/Southeastern Europe, Russia. CIS, the Middle East and China. These detailed regional studies highlight the considerable variation in the key states' perceptions of their national interest and their perceptions of what constitutes legality or legitimacy. In each case, domestic constraints are explored and the ways in which differing perspectives of political and military leadership fed into the crisis are examined. Further thematic chapters determine the war's consequences and the lessons to be drawn in terms of the wider issues of refugees, humanitarian intervention, European security and geopolitics.

Contents:

War in Kosovo : history, development and aftermath / Roland Dannreuther

The kingdom of God or the kingdom of ends : Kosovo in Serbian perception / Sabrina P. Ramet

Perceptions in the former Yugoslav republics / Gabriel Partos

American perceptions / Robert Singh

British perceptions / Michael Clarke

French perceptions / Richard McAllister

German perceptions / Adrian Hyde-Price

Italian perceptions / Martin Clark

Perceptions in Central and South-Eastern Europe / Rick Fawn

Russian perceptions / Mary Buckley

Perceptions in the Commonwealth of Independent States / Sally N. Cummings

Chinese perceptions / Michael Yahuda

Perceptions in the Middle East / Roland Dannreuther

European security after Kosovo / Joanne Wright

Kosovo : geopolitics, geostrategy and geoeconomics / John Erickson

Perceptions of Kosovo's 'refugees' / Joanne van Selm

The concept of humanitarian intervention revisited / James Mayall.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0826456693

0826456707

OCLC:

47050222