Abstract
This paper examines the main features of the non-governmental sector in Kosovo engaged in peace building and multi-ethnic coexistence. It seeks to answer the question why this Western-designed civil society sector, well integrated in the flows of the transnational aid industry, has not so far developed significant leverage against the dominant ethno-nationalist politics in Kosovo. It argues that the main problem of this civil society segment—its lack of capacity to engage in defending and legitimizing the peace-building agenda—results from an incomplete analysis of local civil society in Kosovo before 1999. It also arises from the tendency in transnationally exported definitions of the practices of a ‘good’ civil society to neglect the limits imposed by the local context where, as in Kosovo, the parameters of state sovereignty are based on ethnic homogeneity and segregation. The paper concludes by proposing that plans for Western-style multiculturalism as a programme to stabilize Kosovo may inadvertently perpetuate nationalist (ethno-centred) state building agendas.
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