Sons of the Eagle: Clan Warfare, organized crime and state disintegration in the Western Balkans

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Cold War, the conflict in Kosovo and the western Balkans represents a major structural threat to the security and stability of southeastern Europe, judging from its impact on former Yugoslavia and the spillover effects in other sovereign states in the region. The driving force behind the Albanian insurgency ‐ the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is often given as an example of the most successful guerrilla movement in the modern history of Europe, having been able to achieve its objectives in a relatively short period of time. This article will attempt to address two equally important issues related to the KLA: why they fight and how they fight. The extensive research shows that by combining strategic and tactical rural guerrilla warfare capabilities, the KLA first managed to win the internal war in Serbia and later evolve into a suburban combat force in response to a changing external environment to achieve similar success in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). This flexibility has been primarily a result of its unique structure and organization, built on the traditional Albanian clan system and an idiosyncratic ideology, a combination of ethnonationalism and Marxism‐Leninism.