Kosovo and U.S. Policy: Background and Current Issues

Close to nine years after NATO intervened militarily in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, Kosovo declared itself an independent and sovereign state on February 17, 2008. The event marked a new stage in, but not the end of, international concern and engagement in the western Balkan region. Serbia strenuously objects to and does not recognize Kosovos independence. Kosovo represented the last major unfinished business from the wars of Yugoslav succession in the 1990s. In 1998 and 1999, the United States and its NATO allies engaged in collective action to end escalating violence in Kosovo. These efforts culminated in a 78-day NATO bombing campaign Operation Allied Force against Serbia from March until June 1999, when then-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from the province. Afterward, Kosovo was governed through a combination of UN and local Kosovar interim governing structures. Under the terms of UN Security Council UNSC Resolution 1244 1999, the UN Mission in Kosovo UNMIK retained ultimate political authority in the province. A NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, was charged with providing a secure environment. UNSC Resolution 1244 did not settle Kosovos disputed status. The ethnic Albanian majority demanded full independence for Kosovo Serbs insisted that Kosovo remain an integral part of Serbia. In mid-2005, the UN began a lengthy process to address Kosovos status. UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari proposed in early 2007 that Kosovo gain supervised independence with extensive minority rights. The Ahtisaari proposal stalled in the UNSC for the rest of the year, with the United States and some European countries in the Council strongly backing it, but with Russia opposed and threatening to wield its veto. Instead, the United States and many European countries worked closely with Kosovo leaders to coordinate Kosovos move toward independence and establish new international missions to help implement the Ahtisaari plan.