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Kosovo: The International Community's European Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2012

Anita McKinna
Anita McKinna*
Affiliation:
School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus, Victoria 3010, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article is about the post-war governance of Kosovo and the contradiction posed by the focus on multi-ethnicity on the one hand, and the development of a new Kosovar identity that transcends ethnicity on the other. Post-war Kosovo represents a bold experiment by the international community to create a society that adheres to European standards. The international administration has based its post-war reconstruction and governance of Kosovo on standards aimed at EU accession. To this end, since 1999 the international administration in Kosovo has pursued multi-ethnicity as a panacea. Far from creating the conditions conducive to greater inter-ethnic integration, the policies enacted supposedly in the name of multi-ethnicity have resulted in the further entrenchment of ethnic division. At the same time, the international administration has promoted a new Kosovo identity that transcends ethnicity and that fits with European standards. This article questions the international administration's approach in governing post-war Kosovo with the ultimate goal of EU accession. It argues that this approach has failed both in creating a more multi-ethnic society and in creating a new identity that is embraced by the people of Kosovo. This situation in turn raises questions as to whether there is a genuine will from the people of Kosovo to fulfil such standards, and therefore whether the goal of EU integration for Kosovo is a realistic one.

Type
Focus: Complexities of ‘Europe’
Information
European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , 04 January 2012 , pp. 10 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2012

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References

References and Notes

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