The Role of UN and Major Powers in Recognition of Kosovo

Abstract

The recognition of states is a legal issue associated with international law, at present, it has become a political issue in the world. According to the international law, there are traditional and modern criteria to be considered when giving recognition to states. An entity has to be considered as a State in the international system if those criteria are satisfied. In contrary, major powers in the international system together with the United Nations play a significant role in giving recognition to states. The objective of this study is to find out the reasons for the United Nations and Major Powers’ reluctance to bestow recognition to the entity discussed in this study. The Major Power focused in this paper is Russia. This research is a qualitative research based on secondary data. The data analysis procedure is done through the case study method. The case that is used in this study is Kosovo which is not fully recognized as an independent state in the international system, specially by the United Nations and Russia. In analyzing the case, the international law provisions in giving recognition to states, the United Nations role in giving recognition to states and the Major Powers’ role in giving recognition to the entity is discussed. While getting in to this conclusion it was evident that Kosovo did not fully satisfy the international law provisions regarding the statehood criteria while Russia, China and Serbia strongly opposed granting recognition to Kosovo. According to the findings, all these entities are reluctant to bestow recognition to Kosovo due to power politics. Likewise this paper will pay attention mainly to the issue in Kosovo and the reasons for non-recognition of Kosovo.