Book Notes
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| Author | Sven Gunnar Simonsen |
| Published date | 01 September 2003 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00223433030405009 |
| Subject Matter | Notes |
Buckley, William Joseph, ed., 2000. Kosovo:
Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions. Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. xix + 528 pp. ISBN
0802838898 (hardback).
Schnabel, Albrecht & Ramesh Thakur, eds,
2000. Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian
Intervention: Selective Indignation, Collective
Action, and International Citizenship. New York:
United Nations University Press. xii + 536 pp.
ISBN 9280810502 (paperback).
Booth, Ken, ed., 2001. The Kosovo Tragedy:
The Human Rights Dimensions. London: Frank
Cass. 386 pp. ISBN 0714681261 (paperback).
Only months after the 78-day war over Kosovo
in 1999 was over, it had produced a vast
academic and policy-oriented literature. The
output reflected the intense debates over the war
in Western countries. Those debates were fre-
quently linked to questions of NATO’s legiti-
macy. It did not have a UN mandate; did it
consequently also not have a legal cause, or a just
cause? Kosovo gave us some of the sharpest argu-
ments against overstepping traditional concepts
of sovereignty – and some of the most compas-
sionate arguments for taking responsibility for
what is going on in one’s neighbour’s house.
With Srebrenica and Rwanda fresh in mind, it
seemed necessary to many in the West to act
against the escalating oppression of Albanians in
Kosovo. In turn, the war was dubbed by some as
‘the war of idealists’. That is not to say that the
critics were only those favouring a lesser engage-
ment from a ‘realist’ motivation. The lack of a
UN mandate and the stress it put on NATO’s
fabric were serious factors, and as the war pro-
ceeded, in bello ethical arguments intensified
over issues such as the high-altitude bombing
favoured by a risk-averse NATO leadership.
Navigating the vast Kosovo literature is a chal-
lenge, but anyone with a wish to learn about the
main factual and theoretical issues would do very
well to start with the books edited by Buckley,
Booth and Schnabel & Thakur. Four years on,
they all stand out as contributions that catch the
intensity of the debates, and whose analysis has
stood the test of time. While all of them came
out with a speed rare for academic publishing,
they are also pleasingly well edited. Buckley’s
book contains 65 essays, sorted into seven
sections: ‘voices under the bombs’; ‘voices from
the Balkan past’; ‘voices of today’s Balkan
people’; ‘voices of world leaders’; ‘voices of
political commentators’; ‘ethical and religious
voices’; and ‘voices for the future’. The breadth
and quality of the collection are remarkable. The
eyewitness accounts are powerful; among local
politicians, we hear both moderate and radical
Serbs and Albanians. In the history section,
authors include Tim Judah and Michael A. Sells;
political commentators include Henry Kissinger
and Jürgen Habermas; among the commentators
on ethics are Mark Jurgensmeyer and Nigel
Biggar. Most articles occupy no more than three
or four pages, so arguments are condensed in a
reader-friendly manner. It is an inspiration to see
prominent thinkers developing the most powerful
arguments for their view.‘Dear Robert, I couldn’t
disagree with you more’, responds Michael Igni-
ateff in an exchange with Robert Skidelsky,which
is one of the gems of this book. Schnabel &
Thakur’s book may be said to do the same as
Buckley’s,but within a more traditional scholarly
format. Their book covers a similarly wide range
of issues – 31 articles in seven sections, with
historical chapters, perspectives from different
countries, discussion of the postwar order, ques-
tions related to the mass media, military strategy
and more. Most space has been devoted to
overview articles showing how the war was
debated in different countries and regions. Not
only the West, Russia and China, but also South
Africa, Latin America and India are covered,along
with some others. The complexity of consider-
ations behind states’ positions on the war that
emerges from this survey is intriguing. How
neighbours can form totally different views of a
distant war is illustrated in George Khutsishvili’s
contribution (with Schnabel) on Georgia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan.Thematically, the book’s
emphasis is on humanitarian intervention, and
this is where much of its most interesting analysis
is found. While it may be easier to write off the
humanitarian justifications for the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and though the significance
of Kosovo did not prove to be as predicted, the
discussions of that war are still highly relevant, as
is the United Nations dimension, and the editors’
conclusion that the organization is ‘condemnedto
an eternal credibility gap between aspiration and
performance’. Booth’s book, first published as a
special issue of the International Journalof Human
Rights, focuses on the human rights dimensions of
the Kosovo conflict. Itcontains 13 regular articles
in four sections in a simple chronology – ‘per-
spectives’ (on genocide, ethnic cleansing and rape
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 40 / number 5 / september 2003
610
07 JPR 40-5 bknts (ds) 23/7/03 8:34 am Page 610
To continue reading
Request your trial