Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo by Iain King , Whit Mason (review)

Abstract

reviews 757 extreme-right and brazen criminal gangs whom judges and prosecutors are terrifiedof challenging has coincided with entry into the EU. This suggests that the EU has been less concerned with political conditionality than with insisting that the economic rules forhouse membership are rigidlyadhered to. Itmight mean that the region remains stony ground for genuine political liberalism. Indeed, Pond was unable to discover any figures exercising power at national level with outstanding reformist credentials. Interestingly, itwas urban mayors, Klaus Johannis in Sibiu, Romania and Edi Rama inTirana who made themost favourable impression on her.What the 'Endgame in the Balkans' actually is remains unclear. Is it the growth of regional cooperation, signs of economic recovery, and the more sophisticated efforts of interna tional actors to promote durable reforms and uproot some of the causes of conflict?There isno mention of thepossibility thatRussia will tryto resurrect its influence by buying up valuable real-estate and energy holdings in Slavic stateswith which itonce enjoyed close links. Nor is theremuch of a discussion about the ability of the region to rise from peripheral economic status thanks to the rapid privatizations insistedupon by theEU. The future of theBalkans is still uncertain but the degree and slowly improving quality ofWestern engagement after 2000 suggests that itwill be less easy for local predatory forces to run amok as happened at the end of theCold War. Elizabeth Pond is tobe congratulated forproviding a vivid and detailed portrait of the region's politics and role in international relations which is sure to be widely used by international officials needing an accessible compendium to make some sense of theBalkans. Department of Peace Studies TomGallagher Universityof Bradford King, Iain and Mason, Whit. Peace atAny Price:How the World Failed Kosovo. Crises in World Politics. Hurst & Company, London, 2006. xx + 303 pp. Map. Appendix. Notes. Index. ?15.00. As the twentieth century came to a close, the world's attention was focused on the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the former Yugoslavia. After three wars resulting from the independence bids of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, thebrief calm in the formerYugoslavia produced by theDayton Accords was shattered as Kosovo challenged Belgrade's hold on theprovince. Prior to the onset of theNATO aerial intervention inMarch of 1999, an intense debate examined the legal, political and strategic implications of the proposed humanitarian intervention. When the conflict ended after eleven weeks of massive NATO bombing, thedebate shifted to the efficacyof institutionbuild ing inKosovo and the province's final status.Just as quickly as the topic of Kovoso emerged on the agendas of theworld's leading states, itdeclined. Few studies examined the on-going multilateral effortsto repair the damage of the war and to create a stable relationship between Kosovo and Serbia. In the post-September 11era there seemed littleroom in foreign policy discourse for Kosovo's rebuilding campaign. 758 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 Iain King and Whit Mason provide a much-needed, timely and lucid examination of the world's treatment of Kosovo after the setdement of the conflict in 1999.They are correct inpointing out that theKosovo issue isnot solved to completion and that the failure of the international community to complete itsmission could have dire consequences for the people of South eastern Europe and the international system.They provide not only a detailed assessment of the shortcomings of the rebuilding effortbut also suggest steps that, iftaken, could salvage one ofEurope's most intractable conflicts. Beyond these important contributions to our understanding of the state of affairs in Kosovo today, King and Mason's analysis reveals the opportunities and dangers of nation-building with insights that are applicable in larger endeavours in Afghanistan and Iraq. After a brief review of the events that led to theKosovo War, Peace atAny Price: How the World Failed Kosovo is divided into twomain parts. Part One reviews the four phases of the international administration inKosovo. In that section, the authors note the slide from consolidation to confrontation and stagnation, an evolution that gravely weakened the capacity of the interna tional community to successfully promote the development ofKosovo along Western lines. Part Two isorganized around the overall successes and failures of the international effort,concluding with suggestions for...