A Fatal Defect of Interim Administration? Case Application: Kosovo

Peter Ondrovič

doi:10.5817/CEPSR.2013.23.123

A Fatal Defect of Interim Administration? Case Application: Kosovo

Vol.15,No.2–3(2013)

Peter Ondrovič

https://doi.org/10.5817/CEPSR.2013.23.123

PDF HTML

Abstract

Some studies have suggested that the interim administration (IA) mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has failed in its aim to transform the society and contributed to a complicated completion of the mission. In this article, primarily reports of the UN General-Secretary (SG) on UNMIK are analyzed to answer the question posed in the title. Important development points during the reporting periods that cover key research areas such as security, political cooperation, Northern Kosovo, ethnic tensions, and violence are analyzed. The transitional process and the mode of transition have been influenced by three important factors that significantly undermined the aim of interim administrators to achieve benchmarks. Moreover, conflicting ethnic interest has emerged as the most influential factor that has had a serious detrimental impact on the mode of transition. The IA has failed to transform individual interests that are still very deeply rooted in the political system and in society. Present diplomatic achievements are still strongly imperiled by a deep hostility in the region, largely because of a chronic ignorance on the part of administrators of the intensity of conflicting ethnic interests. To ensure security in the area an international presence will probably be needed in Kosovo for a very long time.

Keywords:
UNMIK; Conflicting Ethnic Interests; Resolution 1244; Mode of Transition; Provisional Institutions

Author biography

Peter Ondrovič

Department of International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno.

References

All on-line sources cited as to 1 May 2013.

Bellamy J.A., Williams P., Griffin S. (2004).Understanding Peacekeeping, Cambridge: Polity Press

Chesterman, Simon. (2005). You, the People: The United Nations, Transitional Administration, and State-Building (Project of the International Peace Academy), New York: Oxford University Press

Doyle, Michael a Sambanis, Nick (2006). Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

González, Francisco E. a King, Desmond (2004). The State and Democratization: The United States in Comparative Perspective, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 34, No. 2, 193–210. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123404000018

Jureković, Predrag (2006). Internationales Konfliktmanagement im Fokus: Kosovo, Moldova und Afghanistan im kritischen Vergleich, Baden-Baden: Nomos

Knoll, Bernhard (2005). From Benchmarking to Final Status? Kosovo and the Problem of an International Administration’s Open-Ended Mandate, European Journal of International Law Vol. 16, No. 4, 637–660. https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chi140

Narten, Jens (2006). Building local institutions and parliamentarism in post-war Kosovo a review of joint efforts by the UN and OSCE from 1999–2006, Helsinki monitor Vol. 17, No. 2, 144–159

S/2000/177, 2000. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2000-177.pdf)

S/2002/1126, 2002. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2002-1126.pdf)

S/2004/348, 2004. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2004-348.pdf)

S/2004/907, 2004. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2004-907.pdf)

S/2005/635, 2005. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/540/69/PDF/N0554069.pdf?OpenElement)

S/2006/361, 2006. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line ( http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2006-361.pdf)

S/2006/707, 2006, Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2007-707.pdf)

S/2007/168, 2007. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N07/272/23/PDF/N0727223.pdf?OpenElement

S/2008/211, 2008. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2008-211.pdf)

S/2010/562, 2010. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2010-562.pdf)

S/2011/43, 2011. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2011-43.pdf)

S/2012/603, 2012. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2012-603.pdf)

S/2012/72, 2012. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2012-72.pdf)

S/2012/818, 2012. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2012-818.pdf)

S/2012/818, 2012. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/S-2012-275.pdf)

S/2013/72, 2013. Report of the Secretary General on the UNMIK in Kosovo, The UN Security Council, on-line (http://www.unmikonline.org/SGReports/N1321969.pdf)

S/RES/1244, 1999. The United Nations Security Council online, on-line (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/1244)

Serbian Government (2007a). Resolution following UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s "Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement" and continuation of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, on-line (http://www.srbija.gov.rs/kosovo-metohija/index.php?id=31735)

Serbian Government (2007b). Serbia rejects Ahtisaari's proposal before UN Security Council and requests new international mediator, on-line (http://www.srbija.gov.rs/vesti/vest.php?id=32983)

Serbian Government (2008). Serbia will not accept EULEX without UN Security Council approval, on-line (http://www.srbija.gov.rs/vesti/vest.php?id=48035)

Shain, Yossi a Linz, Juan J. (1995). Between States: Interim Governments and Democratic Transitions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Tansey, Oisín (2009). Regime-Building: Democratization and International Administration, New York: Oxford University Press

Metrics