USA and Kosovo: From human rights to independence

Abstract

American intellectual opinion on Kosovo continues to draw significant attention from citizens and policymakers of Kosovo. This opinion continues to serve as a very important indicator for future developments. The Kosovo public’s attention to the American reflections on Kosovo is a result of American pragmatism in the affirmation of freedom-loving values and promotion of democracy in the world.

The bloody destruction of the former Yugoslavia produced increased attention on the part of the international community, especially the United States, on the need to prevent another human tragedy that would burden the consciousness of policy makers of the time.

For ten years, Albanians peacefully resisted Serbian expansionist nationalism, but their voice, despite sympathies, did not suffice to attract the requisite international attention without having to enter the cycle of ethnic violence.

It appeared that a part of the international community had illusions about the longevity of the former federation, in the same way it considered finding a solution to the Kosovo issue within the Serbia-Montenegro remnant, or later, within Serbia. Nations of the former Yugoslav Federation paid their independence price with the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives as a consequence of a leadership guided by fabricated medieval myths and superstitions after which the ideology of Greater Serbia was modeled and on whose vanguard stood the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

In this paper, we will present the United States’ official political and academic opinion on American policies on Kosovo before, during, and after the war. We will note a substantial evolution of attitude towards the resolution of the Kosovo issue.