Kosovo Status Overview

Tomorrow, the highly anticipated day arrives for Kosovo and for the world. The UN is unveiling their proposal for the final status of Kosovo, as it has been existing as a protectorate of the UN since the NATO bombing campaign in 1999. This package has been delayed and delayed and then delayed some more, but it looks like things are ready to be announced tomorrow. It is an extremely volatile situation there right now, as ethnic Albanians have threatened to revolt if they are not ultimately given complete soveriegnty (though full soveriegnty is expected...indirectly), and ethnic Serbians have threatened to either leave the country or to fight if they feel discriminated against. Nevertheless, I have been looking forward to this day for a long time now, and I am excited and hopeful that the situation will get better from here.

Now, I know what you are thinking...

"Hey Tim, I'm really confused on what's really going on over there. Could you clue me in?"

"Certainly! In fact, I did a major paper on the situation last semester! I also visited the area for a month a year and a half ago. You can look at my major paper
by clicking here!"


I really encourage you to find an article or to read my paper. This announcement will have dramatic effects on not only Kosovo and Serbia, but the entire Balkan peninsula and even the entire European Union. Before the U.S. was involved in Iraq, we did support a bombing campaign in Kosovo and for the very first time we took preemptive measures to stop a genocide. It is important to continue to understand the great dynamics of our world, and this essential event seems to be getting a little bit overlooked in the U.S.

The first half of the paper deals with the history of the region (primarily focusing on 1999-present), while the second half is largely my proposal/prediction about what will be presented tomorrow by the UN Contact Group (and how to foster long-standing peace in the region). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE respect intellectual property. I spent a lot of time compiling all of this information and gave proper documentation to it. If you want to use it, please do the same! Most of the paper will be irrelevant tomorrow anyway.

Here are two other articles that could be useful:
Ahtisaari Presents Kosovo Plan to Contact Group
INTERVIEW-NATO prepared for north Kosovo 'domino effect'