The U.S. armed forces are not the only military that has sought to discern the lessons of the Kosovo campaign in the spring of 1999. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has also analyzed the conflict and drawn its own conclusions. In fact, as Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami in Florida, observes, rather than reach a single set of conclusions, different groups within the Chinese military drew different judgments. Dr. Dreyer argues that these differences of opinion reflect the considerable diversity of thinking about defense modernization and future war that exists within the PLA today. The analysis that follows provides an opportunity for readers to learn about the different strands in Chinese strategic thinking as that country enters the 21st century. The different views that Dr. Dreyer identifies reminds us of the dangers of treating the PLA as a single monolithic entity. Only through careful study and analysis can we anticipate trends in the future direction of the PLA.

Nato intervention in Kosovo marked a major turning point in post cold war international relations. While some western commentators argued that it was the first war to be fought on purely moral grounds, Serbian, Russian and Chinese assessments were sharply different.This highly original addition to the literature on Kosovo highlights the importance of perspective to an understanding of both the causes and consequences of war. It makes clear that the conceptual lenses, paradigms or frameworks through which political actors view reality in turn affect their understanding of the behaviour of others and their reactions to it. The authors, a team of regional experts on the countries covered, examine the way the war has been understood in countries involved in and peripheral to the conflict. Their aim is to provide a broad yet highly nuanced picture of this focal point of Balkan unrest.The book opens with an introduction to the historical and regional context of the conflict. The authors go on to present twelve case-studies, ranging from Serbia, and the other former Yugoslav republics, to the USA and to China. These detailed regional studies highlight the considerable variation in the key states' perceptions of their national interest and their perceptions of what constitutes legality or legitimacy. In each case, domestic constraints are explored and the ways in which differing perspectives of political and military leadership fed into the crisis are examined. Further thematic chapters determine the war's consequences and the lessons to be drawn in terms of the wider issues of refugees, humanitarian intervention, European security, and geopolitics.

The war in Kosovo has been a defining moment in post-Cold War Europe. Kosovo has great importance beyond the Balkans as the most ambitious attempt of the international community to prevent internal conflicts and rebuild a society destroyed by war and ethnic cleansing. As the danger of ethnic conflict prevails in the region and elsewhere around the world, the experience of Kosovo offers important lessons. This is a comprehensive survey of developments in Kosovo leading up to, during and after the war in 1999, providing additionally the international and regional framework to the conflict. It examines the underlying causes of the war, the attempts by the international community to intervene, and the war itself in spring 1999. It critically examines the international administration in Kosovo since June 1999 and contextualizes it within the relations of Kosovo to its neighbours and as part of the larger European strategy in Southeastern Europe with the stability pact. It does not seek to promote one interpretation of the conflict and its aftermath, but brings together a range of intellectual arguments from some sixteen researchers from the Balkans, the rest of Europe and North America.

More than any other episode since the end of the Cold War, the conflict in Kosovo revealed the distinctive attributes of a new American "way of war." In so doing, Kosovo also brought into sharp focus the military, political, and moral dilemmas confronting a liberal democracy intent on wielding preeminent power on a global scale. What are the moral implications posed by waging high-tech warfare for humanitarian purposes? Does the precedent set by intervention of this type point toward peace and stability or toward more war? How well suited are the United States military and American society as a whole to the security challenges of the age of globalization? According to Bacevich and Cohen, gauging the "success" achieved in Kosovo yields important answers to these and related questions. The volume includes a well-crafted historical overview of the war and six essays that place it in a broader context. The contributors explore the conflict's relationship to U.S. grand strategy, the Revolution in Military Affairs, and American civil-military relations, among other topics. Contributors: William A. Arkin, Andrew J. Bacevich, Eliot A. Cohen, Alberto R. Coll, James Kurth, Anatol Lieven, Michael Vickers

This collection examines the escalation of the Kosovo conflict to a full-scale war. It looks at its origins, background and the implications of the conflict: the myths, history and perceptions of the post-1989 crisis and the situation after the start of NATOs 1999 bombing campaign.

Om det spændte forhold mellem albanere og serbere i Kosovo, som har eksisteret siden middelalderen, og som til sidst førte til NATOs bombardement og Kosovos forvandling fra serbisk provins til internationalt protektorat

'Required reading for anyone wishing to understand the war and the media's role in it.' --The New Internationalist

The U.S. armed forces are not the only military that has sought to discern the lessons of the Kosovo campaign in the spring of 1999. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has also analyzed the conflict and drawn its own conclusions. In fact, as Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami in Florida, observes, rather than reach a single set of conclusions, different groups within the Chinese military drew different judgments. Dr. Dreyer argues that these differences of opinion reflect the considerable diversity of thinking about defense modernization and future war that exists within the PLA today. The analysis that follows provides an opportunity for readers to learn about the different strands in Chinese strategic thinking as that country enters the 21st century. The different views that Dr. Dreyer identifies reminds us of the dangers of treating the PLA as a single monolithic entity. Only through careful study and analysis can we anticipate trends in the future direction of the PLA.

The war in Kosovo was a turning point: NATO deployed its armed forces in war for the first time, and placed the controversial doctrine of 'humanitarian intervention' squarely in the world's eye. It was an armed intervention for the purpose of implementing Security Council resolutions-but without Security Council authorization.This report tries to answer a number of burning questions, such as why the international community was unable to act earlier and prevent the escalation of the conflict, as well as focusing on the capacity of the United Nations to act as global peacekeeper.The Commission recommends a new status for Kosovo, 'conditional independence', with the goal of lasting peace and security for Kosovo-and for the Balkan region in general. But many of the conslusions may be beneficially applied to conflicts the world-over.