Kosovo Crisis Research Articles

Archival Fonds of the Albanian Press in the Kosovo Archives: Vital Archival Sources for the History of the Kosovo War 1998-1999

This paper discusses the importance of archival records as primary sources for the history of states. The focus is on the archival fonds of the Albanian press in Kosovo, held by the State Agency of Archives of Kosovo. The paper highlights the significance of these fonds as important sources for the history of the Kosovo War 1998/1999. From various newspapers found within these fonds, we can extract daily based information on significant events from Kosovo, on various meetings between leaders from Kosovo and the international community, as well as on the continuous support of Kosovo by international allies.

Fostering Social Cohesion in Post‐Conflict Societies: The Power of Normative Apologies in Reducing Competitive Victimhood and Enhancing Reconciliation and Intergroup Negotiation

ABSTRACTThe present research investigated whether a normative outgroup apology enhances conciliatory attitudes (i.e., willingness for intergroup contact and feelings of peace) and intergroup negotiations while reducing competitive victimhood. In three experiments (N = 855) conducted in the post‐conflict context of Kosovo, we manipulated the normative apology by informing participants that the majority of outgroup members (i.e., Serbs) apologized for the Kosovo war. We compared this normative apology condition with an institutional apology, in which a Serbian representative apologized for the Kosovo war on behalf of the Serbian government (in all experiments), and a control (i.e., baseline) condition in which no apology‐related information was presented (Experiments 1 and 2). Overall, the results showed that participants in the normative apology condition reported greater willingness for contact with outgroup members, increased feelings of peace, greater support for intergroup negotiations, and reduced competitive victimhood compared to participants in other conditions. In addition, Experiment 3 revealed that outgroup humanization mediated the effect of normative apology on conciliatory attitudes, intergroup negotiations and competitive victimhood. In sum, these findings showed that normative apologies play a critical role in improving intergroup relations and reducing conflict‐related tensions.

WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIBERATION OF KOSOVO IN 1998-1999

The work brings to mind the years 1998 and 1999 in Kosovo, which brought a lot of suffering. Serbian forces carried out massacres, murders, raped women and men and destroyed almost the entire country. Approximately 90% of Kosovo Albanians were forcibly expelled from their homes. The paper brings to attention a contemporary issue, in these times of horror that are being repeated in the same form again in Ukraine and Palestine, groups of women and girls who are raped, massacred and killed, help displaced people with food, support, medical care, housing and education. Over 20 thousand Albanian women and girls were raped by the Serbs during the years 1998-1999. The harrowing narratives of Kosovar women and girls reveal the barbaric violence that the Serbs have inflicted on women, girls, mothers, children and men, who became victims of rape during the war. The role of women in Kosovo, in this war, was as important as the role of women for the creation of a new life. This research is based on real statistics of the testimonies of women and girls during the war in Kosovo. According to the records, women and girls got knowledge about weapons and ammunition and became part of the national liberation struggle. The women became the informers of the massacres that the Serbs would do in the towns and villages, preventing them. The lack of an accurate number of women participating in the war for the liberation of Kosovo means that they do not take their rightful place in this war. They deserve recognition. According to the data, there was a considerable number of women in the guerrilla BIA. Women had a key role in the liberation of the country, they must have been forgotten by the free state of Kosovo. The contribution and sacrifices of women during the war in Kosovo were unparalleled, they aimed at the war and the liberation of the Albanian lands. In many studies, this role of women in liberation has not been identified, due attention has not been paid to it, and this is related to the existence of patriarchal norms of Kosovar society. The exclusion of women from this active contribution is related to these norms and this study makes an effort to bring this contribution of women to the liberation war of Kosovo. The study brings to attention that the contribution of women during the war should be documented and be part of our oral and written history, whose contribution has been little described.

Aspects of the creation and judicial activity of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo and the Role of the Republic of Albania

Abstract Since the end of the Kosovo conflict in 1999, various international and national courts have investigated serious war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region. In 2015, the Kosovo Specialized Chambers (SCK) and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) were established to investigate specific allegations of war crimes, particularly those linked to members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during and after the conflict. Although the Court is legally part of Kosovo’s system, it faces strong opposition within the latter, due to its location outside the country and its exclusion of Kosovo nationals from its staff. The trials of key KLA figures, many of whom have held major political roles in the country, have sparked significant debate both in Kosovo and internationally. This manuscript will examine the legal foundation, structure, and scope of the SCK and SPO, and how they compare to other international courts. It will also review the indictments and ongoing trials of former KLA members. Additionally, the article will explore Albania’s diplomatic efforts, particularly its campaign to challenge allegations of organ trafficking mentioned in a 2011 Council of Europe report, which played a key role in the creation of the Court. By looking at the Court’s activities, the article will offer insights into its impact on Kosovo’s international standing.

The Role of The International Court of Justice ICJ in Redressing the Environmental Damages Caused by States During Wartime

Over the past century, it has been more evident that one manifest consequence of conflict is the detrimental impact on the environment. Although there has been beneficial growth in international environmental law, the environment has nonetheless suffered from following international armed conflicts, including the Kosovo conflict, the Iraq war, the Israel-Lebanon war, and Ukraine. In fact, there has been no legal responsibility imposed on any State for violating the responsibilities outlined in Articles 35 and 55 of Additional Protocol I. Remarkably, the International Court of Justice ICJ has acknowledged that environmental damage is eligible for compensation and to take "active restoration measures". the main problem is that the environmental damage persists even after the war has ceased. This article attempts to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the State responsibility for environmental damage during wartime before the ICJ. This article shows the significant contributions from ICJ to protect the environment but while also showing the ambiguity related to the development of reparation for the damage caused during wartime. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which international law could apply to environmental damage in wartime. How much environmental damage needs to happen how much reparation must be deliberated? The article explores a methodology for evaluating environmental damage caused during a conflict by the ICJ and takes the lessons learned from the jurisprudence of the ICJ to determine the appropriate amount of compensation for such damage. This article examines the ineffectiveness of the current international legal framework for dealing with environmental damage during wartime. It provides an overview of the historical context of environmental damage in armed conflicts and a review of existing customary and conventional laws.

An epigenome-wide study of a needs-based family intervention for offspring of trauma-exposed mothers in Kosovo.

Maternal stress and trauma during pregnancy have been shown to influence cortisol levels and epigenetic patterns, including DNA methylation, in the offspring. This study aimed to determine whether a tailor-made family intervention could help reduce cortisol levels in children born to traumatized mothers, and to determine whether it effected offspring DNA methylation. The secondary aim was to determine whether the family intervention influenced DNA methylation aging, a marker of biological aging. A needs-based family intervention was designed to help address relational difficulties and family functioning, and included a focus on family strengths and problem-solving patterns. Women survivors of sexual violence during the Kosovar war in 1998-1999, and their families (children with or without partners) were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of a family therapy over a 3-5-month period, or to a waitlist control group. Both mothers and children completed assessments prior to and after the intervention phase. Children's blood samples collected at these two time points were used to measure cortisol and epigenome-wide DNA methylation patterns (Illumina EPIC array). Cortisol levels, and genome-wide DNA methylation changes pre-/postintervention were compared between children in the intervention and the waitlist groups. DNA methylation age and accelerated biological aging were calculated. Sixty-two women-child dyads completed the study, 30 were assigned first to the intervention group, and 32 to the waitlist control group. In adjusted linear regression, the family intervention was associated with a significant decline in cortisol levels compared to the waitlist control (β=-124.72, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -197.4 to -52.1, p=.001). Children in the intervention group, compared to the waitlist control group, showed >1% differential methylation degree at 5819 CpG (5'-C-phosphate-G-3') sites across the genome (p<.01), with the largest methylation difference being 21%. However, none of these differences reached genome-wide significant levels. There was no significant difference in DNA methylation aging between the two groups. We find evidence that a tailored family-based intervention reduced stress levels in the children (based on cortisol levels), and modified DNA methylation levels at a number of sites across the genome. This study provides some preliminary evidence to suggest the potential for tailored interventions to help break the intergenerational transmission of trauma, however, large studies powered to detect associations at genome-wide significant levels are needed.

Preparation and implementation of the “Greater Albania” project: historical and geopolitical aspects (1944-1980s)

The Kosovo issue is currently “settled” by the actual functioning of the Republic of Kosovo and by providing it with all the attributes of statehood during the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations (completeness of territory, border, customs, army, independent telecommunications and electricity system, international telephone number, etc.). When studying the Kosovo problem, it is logical to raise the question: why and how it was resolved in this particular way, what were the internal and external factors that ensured the stunning success of the separatist Pristina, which achieved an unprecedented permission for the Albanians, bypassing international and domestic law, for another national self-determination in the form creation of a second state? Often, when talking about the Kosovo confl ict, the hot phase of which occurred in 1998–1999, the main focus is on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and their Western and non-Western patrons. However, no paramilitary unit that is relatively small in number, extremely weak in military training, and has a sabotage and punitive nature, even with external support, is capable of achieving a goal of this level in such a short period of time. It would take decades to prepare for its implementation — and they were at the disposal of Albanian tribal leaders and socially signifi cant fi gures who managed to ensure their interests in this way (the issue was not caring for the Albanian people, only gaining infl uence and extracting specifi c material benefi ts). Albanian organizations of the interwar period (Kosovo Committee, 1918–1925) and the leaders of the bandits, who psychologically and emotionally consolidated the practice of terror against the Serbs of Kosmet, laid a “strong foundation”. However, post-war Albanian emigration played a key role in the Kosovo confl ict of the 1990s. Moreover, Albanian emigration is also not a random phenomenon; it has a consistent development and direct historical continuity from Albanian organizations since the end of the 19th century. The article analyzes the Albanian nationalist organizations created in Kosovo and Metohija at the fi nal stage of the Second World War, as well as the political organizations of the Albanian emigration of the post-war period, identifying the continuity of ideology and practice that laid a solid foundation and created the conditions for the emergence of the Kosovo Liberation Army and political movements that ensured the creation of the Republic of Kosovo.

How to think about the instrumental politics of mass rape: a critical appraisal of feminist approaches

ABSTRACT Mass rape and other forms of sexual violence in ethnic conflict, as their incidence in Bosnian and Kosovo wars in former Yugoslavia showed in the 1990s, cannot be relativised along some strategy of either ‘victimization’ or ‘everyone is guilty’ within an antiquated framework of ethnic-religious hatred. In this case as in others, the local notions of honour and blood cannot be taken uncritically to be binding cultural traits that ought to determine social behaviour. Incidentally, they cannot either account for a structured ideology of ‘men’s war against women’, or for a postmodern feminist ideology of gender and the moral panic of a ‘patriarchal dream-order’ restored. In this article, I offer a critical appraisal of the stereotyped and relativising accounts of feminist and human rights scholars, a critique very much needed for an anthropological approach attentive to cultural ideology and activism. To understand the effectiveness of mass rape in a military strategy of ethnic cleansing, I suggest local cultural concepts and moral relativist ideas are not culturally given, but instrumental resources deliberately mobilised.

Psychological novel in children’s literature

Introduction: Psychological novels are numerous in Kosovo’s children’s literature, so their study is essential, given the circumstances of their creation and their impact on the formation of a new generation.Objective: To investigate the development of such novels, considering the experiences and specificities of authors from Kosovo.Methods: The study used a combination of methods, including sociological, formal, structural, synthesis and literary analysis. Development: The origin of the authors of the texts for children was considered, which ultimately reflected not only their professional qualities but also their ones. Various historical circumstances, including the war in Kosovo in the 1990s, were interpreted in the course of the study, which ultimately contributed to a comprehensive analysis of the works. The nature of the relationship between different generations is studied in the example of a grandfather and grandson, which determined the importance of the process of communication between the older and younger generations. The concepts of “tragedy” and “pain” within the framework of psychological novels in children’s literature are considered, which in conclusion demonstrates the close interdependence of the complex historical and political situation in Kosovo and the cultural segment of the country. Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into how psychological themes in children’s novels from Kosovo impact readers, offering a nuanced understanding of their role in shaping young personalities

NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) AND ITS ROLE FOR SECURITY IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

Background: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the world’s largest and most powerful collective security organisation in modern times. Membership in this organisation is the objective and effort of many countries, including most of the countries of the Western Balkans. Membership ensures collective protection, security and political stability. Since its inception, NATO has emerged as a global force for security and the spread of peace almost across the globe. Not everyone deems it as such, considering the Russian Federation sees it as its main enemy. Its military operations have been centred around protecting human rights and maintaining peace. The best example of this commitment is NATO’s humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, one of the countries of the Western Balkans. Even after June 1999, NATO was present in this country and took care of the peace and security of the entire Western Balkans. The presence of this organisation in this part of the globe remained essential, as did knowing the geopolitical history of this region. The Balkans still suffers from nationalist policies and interethnic divisions, which in either case remain a very important factor for security in this region. One fundamental issue of Western Balkan countries is the acceleration of economic reforms, the rule of law and the fight against corruption to achieve membership in the European Union. Instead of these important issues in the Western Balkans, clashes have continued over border changes and nationalist rhetoric, which could undermine peace and security in this region. The current problems of the Western Balkans are inherited from the dissolution of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia. The wars in the former Yugoslavia, despite being the cause for the establishment of new independent states, did not fulfil the ethnic expectations of these countries. Given that the Republic of Serbia, in the preamble of the 2006 Constitution, foresees the Republic of Kosovo as its own territory,1 legal action that expresses territorial claims against a sovereign state poses a risk for new conflicts in the Balkans. A situation with conflicting tendencies is also present in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the official policy of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia has openly shown the tendencies for secession from the Federation and union with Serbia.2 This paper deals with the role that NATO has played and continues to play with its presence in the Balkans in maintaining peace and regional security, the challenges of security and building a stable peace in this region of Europe, where nationalist tendencies dominate as well as interethnic problems, lack of political culture and deficits of democracy. Methods: Combined scientific methods were used in this paper, starting with the qualitative method and literature review. The qualitative method was used to interpret the scientific theories related to security. Reviewing the literature, we managed to combine the results of other studies related to our study topic. This paper also used the analysis method, which helped us separate the elements from the totality of the study problem. The historical method has served to show the axis of the security problem in the Balkans and to explain the development of NATO. Results and conclusions: As a security organisation, during the Cold War, it served as a mechanism for collective defence against the nuclear threats of the Warsaw Pact and the spread of democratic values of the Western world. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it has served as an organisation that promotes global peace and security, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The existence of open political issues in the Western Balkans, in particular the territorial claims of Serbia against Kosovo, the nationalist tendencies of the Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina for separation from the Federation, the attempts of Russia to influence this region, using history, culture and intelligence services and some other issues such as the lack of political culture in Albania and Montenegro and the issues of North Macedonia with Bulgaria have posed risks to the regional security. In this geopolitical environment called the Western Balkans, the integration of all countries in NATO and its presence in this region is essential for the future and security. In this context, the membership of Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina in NATO will have to be a priority for Western countries. The membership of these two states would serve regional peace and security.

Albanian Songs of The Battle of Fushë Kosovë (1389)

The corresponding song received this name because the fighting between the forces of the Balkan coalition and the invading Ottoman army took place in this space, near today's Pristina, the capital of the Republic of Kosovo. The Albanian variants of this theme convey in an original and special way the general picture of the Kosovo War. In this sense, we would say that the songs about the Kosovo War, 1389, among the Albanians, although in different variants, with significant differences, come as a specific creativity of the Albanians, distinct from the other variants of the peoples who sang them this major event in the history of the Balkans. The true purpose of the creators and the circulating media of the songs about the Kosovo War has been the reflection of a concrete historical event, with real characters, historically documented, in addition to created figures, which is a completely legitimate phenomenon for folkloric artistic creations in generally.

동유럽·발칸 민족분쟁과 공존 가능성: 21세기 코소보 사례

that ushered in the ‘New Cold War’ of the 21st century. And it was an event that clearly impressed the international community on the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of Kosovo in the international dynamics. In terms of the history of international relations, there are two main implications of the ‘Kosovo War’. First, it was the first attempt to convert NATO's traditional concept of ‘defensive strategy’ into the concept of ‘offensive strategy’. The Kosovo War was the first war involving NATO in a country outside the region. And through this, NATO can be said to have laid the foundation for pursuing its own influence in the Interest Sphere of United States in the 21st century. The second can be said to be the ‘resurrection of the Russian Empire’ and the ‘emergence of Putin’. As a result of the 1999 Kosovo War, Russia chose Putin in 2000, and he promised to revive Russia in the 21st century as an empire similar to that of the Cold War era. And this led to the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. As Kosovo’s geopolitical importance has been confirmed, the United States and Europe agree on the need to establish permanent peace in Kosovo for peace in Europe. However, it is also true that there are still many obstacles to the possibility of peace and coexistence between the Serbian and Kosovo governments surrounding Kosovo today. Therefore, in this study, based on theoretical discussions on the origins of national conflicts in Balkan Europe, I will introduce the various aspects and characteristics of national conflicts in Kosovo in the 21st century, and consider the possibility of their coexistence.

Angry Men and Civic Women? Gendered Effects of Conflict on Political Participation in Kosovo

This article studies the effect of the 1998–99 Kosovo war on current political participation, disaggregating the analysis by the type of conflict experience – namely death or injury to self or a family member or displacement – and by gender. The results show that experience of conflict is associated with more political participation but with important distinctions between genders by the form of participation and the type of conflict experience. Displacement is associated with more voting among women, but not among men, and with more demonstrating by men but weaker or no effects for women; death and injury are associated with higher political party membership for men but not women. While experiences of conflict increase levels of political participation, the form that this takes varies by gender, with effects on private, civic, action among women, and effects on direct, public, and more emotionally heightened engagement among men. HIGHLIGHTS The view that conflict victims are more politically active than non-victims needs nuancing. In Kosovo, women’s war displacement is only associated with an increase in voting. But men will join a political party (if injury or death in the family) or demonstrate (if displaced). This implies that victimization does not contribute to challenging gendered social norms. The accepted “post-traumatic growth” hypothesis is insufficient to explain these findings.

Migrants’ community building in two Montenegrin informal neighborhoods

ABSTRACT This research aims to benefit displaced people due to conflict in Kosovo and their commitment to community building in two Montenegrin informal neighborhoods. Drawing on qualitative data from observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews, the author examines the potential for urban cohesion through inhabitation and political agency in the urban-occupied territories attributed to the physical and social qualities of neighborhoods. Urban cohesion involves feelings of trust, gathering, acceptance, and connectedness, while political agency entails the broadest and freest access to community tools. The consequence is a communal building that opposes dependence on the leadership of the elected representatives. Proponents of residents’ trust in the effective leadership of local elected officials and community representatives promote productive community development. Since evidence of the efficacy of this model is lacking in Montenegro, this article seeks to address inhabitants’ engagement with political parties, leading toward communal consciousness.

The Discussion of the Tendences and Evolution of the European Security Issues in the British Parliament (1990-2010)

The article is devoted to the discussion of European security issues in the British Parliament in the post-bipolar period. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the British establishment had to revise the foreign policy doctrine of the United Kingdom to adapt it to the demands of the post-bipolar age. During this period, parliamentarians discussed the future role of NATO after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. The political establishment has continued to define NATO as the foundation of the Euroatlantic system of collective security. After the direct military threat from the USSR vanished, the British elites had difficulties formulating the strategic goal of the North Atlantic alliance's existence. Another important topic was the creation of the European Union, its future enlargement in Central-Eastern Europe, and the search for the best approach to British European policy under new circumstances. There was an agreement that the idea of the “Europe of Nations” was best suited to British national interests. The British government also deterred attempts by France and Germany to transform the European Union into a federal superstate. The Balkan crisis also became a central topic that caused heated debates in Parliament in an attempt to find a path to a peaceful settlement. In the case of military interventions in local conflicts, the British establishment tried to evade direct intervention in the Balkan crisis but was forced to reconsider its position under growing pressure from allies, who began to experience economic and reputational damage. The humanitarian intervention in Kosovo created a precedent that was used to justify interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Additionally, the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia were also discussed.

The U.S. Military: A Reluctant Humanitarian

Since the end of the Second World War, the U.S. military has been among the most important providers of humanitarian assistance, particularly in the wake of natural disasters and conflict. Yet, aid organizations rarely consider the U.S. military a humanitarian actor, and military personnel do not identify primarily as humanitarians. Nevertheless, the logistics and manpower capacities of the U.S. military have often pushed it into humanitarian spheres. Once involved, however, the traditional humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence do not drive the military provision of humanitarian assistance. Instead, military personnel approach humanitarian assistance through their training, namely, moving items, building things, and managing people. They often pair a training-based framework with a general sense of helping those in need. The U.S. military is a humanitarian actor, but coming to grips with that requires reimaging humanitarianism. To explore the military as humanitarian, this essay first examines how the demands of logistics pushed the U.S. military into becoming a provider of refugee assistance in Albania during the 1999 Kosovo crisis. It then uses the 2021 evacuation and resettlement of Afghans to explore how the U.S. military's ready pool of manpower led it to become more deeply involved in humanitarian responses. Humanitarian crises are almost invariably complex and messy. The moral imperative to help those in need interacts with political and security priorities in often uncomfortable ways. That confluence helps explain why the U.S. military assists with some, but not other, crises.

The disputed territories of information: The case of alleged war crimes during the Kosovo War

This article analyses participants’ sense-making and demonstrates procedural consequentially and relevance, and makes the data on which observations are based available to readers. By looking at a TV interview, in Albanian, of Hashim Thaçi, the former PM of Kosovo, given to respond to allegations against him regarding involvement in war crimes, the focus will be not only on what it is said but also on the epistemic positions occupied by the participants, with a particular interest in knowledge as a norm-governed domain and in the practices of language usage. We will highlight strategies like repetition, repair, code selection and code switching that are used by participants as a means to claim and govern knowledge. Such knowledge can become the basis of contestation and one speaker may seek to impose their knowledge of some facts or events over another’s and thereby establish a territory of knowledge in a series of moves, not entirely unlike the way that physical territory may be defended or attacked; held or occupied.

“Kosovo precedent” or “Kosovo deadlock”?

The article provides a thorough analysis of the “Kosovo” international regional confl ict. Based on UN documentary materials, the author analyzes the historical origins of the Kosovo crisis, compares the positions of the parties in its settlement and traces the dynamics of development and prospects for resolving the Kosovo confl ict. This, according to the author, allows us to reveal the essence and identify the consequences of the so-called “Kosovo precedent” in international legal practice from a historical point of view. The author reveals the nature and character of the protracted “Kosovo” confl ict, which carries within itself the distinctive features and characteristics of both international and domestic political types. The author fi nds out the reasons why the Kosovo confl ict periodically escalates. The author proves why the temporary localization of the Kosovo confl ict did not contribute to its fi nal settlement, even with the participation of the United Nations. As a result, Kosovo is still a partially recognized state entity, but the method and consequences of resolving the “Kosovo” crisis have become a precedent for resolving other crisis situations in the world. But has the correct way out of the deadlock been found?

The central role of the identifying assumption in population size estimation.

The problem of estimating the size of a population based on a subset of individuals observed across multiple data sources is often referred to as capture-recapture or multiple-systems estimation. This is fundamentally a missing data problem, where the number of unobserved individuals represents the missing data. As with any missing data problem, multiple-systems estimation requires users to make an untestable identifying assumption in order to estimate the population size from the observed data. If an appropriate identifying assumption cannot be found for a data set, no estimate of the population size should be produced based on that data set, as models with different identifying assumptions can produce arbitrarily different population size estimates-even with identical observed data fits. Approaches to multiple-systems estimation often do not explicitly specify identifying assumptions. This makes it difficult to decouple the specification of the model for the observed data from the identifying assumption and to provide justification for the identifying assumption. We present a re-framing of the multiple-systems estimation problem that leads to an approach that decouples the specification of the observed-data model from the identifying assumption, and discuss how common models fit into this framing. This approach takes advantage of existing software and facilitates various sensitivity analyses. We demonstrate our approach in a case study estimating the number of civilian casualties in the Kosovo war.

Discussion on "The central role of the identifying assumption in population size estimation" by Serge Aleshin-Guendel, Mauricio Sadinle, and Jon Wakefield.

In this discussion response, we consider some practical implications of the authors' consideration of the no-highest-order interaction (NHOI) model for multiple systems estimation, which permits the authors to derive the explicit (albeit untestable) identifying assumption related to the unobserved (or missing) individuals. In particular, we discuss several aspects, from the standard process of model selection to potential poor predictive performance due to over-fitting and the implications of data reduction. We discuss these aspects in relation to the case study presented by the authors relating to the number of civilian casualties within the Kosovo war, and conduct further preliminary simulations to investigate these issues further. The results suggest that the NHOI models considered, despite having a potentially useful theoretical result in relation to the underlying identifying assumption, may perform poorly in practice.