Statebuilding In Kosovo, International Community Must Heed Lessons Learned

Statedbuilding IN Kosovo, International Community In a few weeks’ time Kosovo will hold its first local elections since declaring its independence from Serbia last year, but participation by the country’s Serbs is by no means guaranteed.

Ten years after the war there, much progress has been made, but, according to a new report published by ippr, much still remains to be done.

ippr’s new report States of Conflict: a case study on statebuilding in Kosovo suggests that the situation in the north of the country, where many public services are funded by Belgrade rather than Pristina, and where Serbia exerts significant power, poses a fundamental challenge to the rule of law and the territorial integrity of the country.

ippr argues that the key lessons the international community must learn from ten years of statebuilding in Kosovo are that:

• Statebuilding is fundamentally a political exercise, requiring political decisions about the distribution of power and resources. This is a problem for international organisations like NATO, the UN, the EU and OSCE engaging in statebuilding activities who are eager to maintain their neutrality.

• Disproportionate focus by the international community on building the capacity of a country’s executive, without doing the same with its legislature and judiciary, can make for an unbalanced and unaccountable state.

• The pursuit of stability can hinder progress in other areas. Kosovo may be relatively stable, but that has come at the expense of facing some tough questions in terms of inter-ethnic community cohesion.

• There is a danger that the presence of international statebuilders can become a condition of stability in a post-conflict society, making it difficult for the international community then to leave.

Andy Hull, ippr’s Senior Research Fellow specialising in International Security, says:

“Statebuilding in Kosovo is by no means complete. The country has come a long way, but it is not out of the woods yet. NATO, the UN, OSCE and the EU have managed to keep the peace in Kosovo for a decade. However, in areas where there has been less international focus, like education and agriculture, progress remains limited.

“The consequences of the global economic crisis for Kosovo may also be grave. The country’s economy relies heavily on taxes at the border, donor aid, remittances and foreign direct investment and is ill-equipped to cope with a fast-growing young population in need of jobs. Kosovo’s part in the struggle between a resurgent Russia and the West is also a cause for concern.” Must Heed Lessons Learned

• Local elections will take place in Kosovo on 15 November. Voters will select local leaders in 36 municipalities, with 37 parties and coalitions of ethnic Albanians and 21 lists representing minority Serb groups due to run. The Serbian authorities in Belgrade have called for a boycott of these elections, as part of their continued opposition to Kosovo’s independence.

• 1999 saw NATO bomb Yugoslavia in response to the perpetration of atrocities against the territory’s Albanian population by Yugoslav forces. Since then, the international community has worked hard with local actors to build a stable, viable Kosovan state.

• In 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Russia and Serbia rejected this move, but, as of July this year, 60 states had recognised Kosovo as an independent state, including 22 of the 27 members of the EU. However, with the Serbs in the north of the country having set up their own parallel state institutions, de facto partition along the River Ibar persists, the Kosovo Albanian political elite has fragmented post-independence, and the economic situation in the country remains dire.

• This report is the second publication in ippr’s States of Conflict series. The previous publication was on Macedonia. Forthcoming publications will focus on Bosnia, Haiti and Afghanistan.

Topics: Belgrade, democracy, elections, independence, inter ethnic community, international community, Kosovo, NATO, politics, post conflict society, Pristina, security, Serbia, stability, statebuilding, UN, United Nations

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