Feature

A Troubled Peace

Persectives on the Struggle to Rebuild Kosovo

The complexity of war is often followed by the complexity of restoring peace. This is especially true in Kosovo, a region now struggling to build a new future. In 1992, Kosovo's Albanian majority voted to secede from Serbia and Yugoslavia; by 1998, tensions had significantly mounted. Then, Serbian troops, probably under the direction of President Milosevic, destroyed villages and drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes. It took NATO air strikes to bring Milosevic to the table to discuss a cease-fire, but the work of peace would then take an unusual turn. The United Nations, in an unprecedented move, set up an international civilian administration in Kosovo.

In the following pages, we offer four perspectives on the challenges of this situation: a professor of international law, two young Army reservists serving as part of the peacekeeping mission and a Serbian student living in the United States. While their observations by no means tell the entire story, they provide a glimpse into a region now closely watched by the world.

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