The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s saw the creation of new independent states out of the republics that comprised it. Even though Kosova was one of the constituent units of the Yugoslav Federation, albeit not a republic, the international community refused to recognize it as a sovereign country. However, the recognition of other former Yugoslav republics such as Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia as sovereign states by the international community did not prevent the ensuing war that claimed the lives of thousands of people on all sides. All international norms and conventions were suddenly violated as if they did not exist at all. The Wilsonian vision for the right to national self-determination was crumbling in a most ruthless way. This was also the case in Kosova where Serbia had established an oppressive and apartheid-like rule resulting in gross human rights violation that in turn le
An important point to make here is that unlike traditional realists and behaviouralists, liberalists and in particular liberal institutionalists rejected the state centric view of the world in recent decades. This is very important when considering the international intervention in Kosova as a precedent because of suppression of citizens by their own sovereign country. For the first time in history, the liberal international community ignored the 'safe haven' of the political sovereignty of an independent state to defend the core values of liberalism. This was a very important but contentious move in international relations since it risked shaking the whole notion of the Westphalian state. Even though the Cold War had ended ten years before, its residue was still being felt. Russia and a few other non-liberal states were clearly opposed to the NATO intervention in Kosova. Nevertheless, NATO and its allies were adamant not to allo
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