Peace, power, multilateralism and the international system in the 21st century : the case of Kosovo : a practioners view!

Abstract

O artigo aborda a questão da independência unilateral do Kosovo e os problemas jurídicos e políticos que daí advieram.

Eighteen months after the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by Kosovo on 17th February 2008, while in the words of the United States (US) Vice-President Bidden, independence has proven “irreversible”, Europe’s youngest state remains in a sort of “recognition limbo”. Only some sixty countries, albeit some of the most powerful and wealthy on the planet, out of the 192 United Nations (UN) Member States have recognised the former UN Administered Territory. While Kosovo has also been granted membership of the most important global multilateral financial institutions namely, the Bretton Woods – which is an important step to UN membership, the existence of a possible Russian veto on the UN Security Council (SC) precludes membership of the world’s governing body for the foreseeable future. These mixed results following Kosovo’s February UDI reveal the complex and multi-faceted nature behind the declaration of independence, which militates against simple interpretations of the act as a universally applicable precedent, illegal or legal. If there is a precedent, it is a very conditional one. Moreover, a closer analysis of the February UDI reveals that those are not the main issues that stem from Kosovo’s declaration of independence. The essence of the 2008 UDI lies in the “politics” of the act – “for there lies the rub” to quote Shakespeare. The politics and the diplomacy that underpinned Kosovo’s 17th February “putsch” on the world stage was not an act of spontaneous combustion. It was part of long and complicated negotiations, which, importantly, reveal that little has changed since the Berlin Conference on Africa as far as the international system is concerned: whilst multilateralism and international organisations play a more prominent role in today’s international order, powerful friends, force and the interests of the great powers remain the key dynamic in the international system and the critical ingredient in the life and death of nation-states. Kosovo’s UDI is therefore not so much about a precedent but fundamentally about the complexity of managing international peace and security, as well as the current state of the international system in the 21st century. In contrast to a series of events such as the second Iraq war, Georgia, and North Korea among others, which have generally marred the image of the UN and its SC to safeguard international peace and security, the Kosovo UDI and its aftermath shed a positive light on the role of the UN, and particularly the pro-active leadership of the UN Secretary-General (SG) in what may be the most lasting precedent of Kosovo – the shift from the UN SC to a lead role by the UN SG in managing difficult international crisis. Kosovo’s act of independence shows the clear possibility of a “peaceful co-existence” between great power politics and a collective system of global security that is the UN.