Kosovo: War and Revenge [Paperback]

Mr. Tim Judah (Author), Tim Judah (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2000

"Kosovo: War & Revenge" explains how Kosovo became the crucible of one of the century's most pernicious conflicts: how Serbs and Albanians, sharing this tiny corner of Europe, became locked into a ferocious cycle of domination and revenge. It shows how the conflict that began here led not only to the destruction of the old Yugoslavia, but to a war waged by the world's most powerful military alliance. The book sets the conflict in its full historical context. It analyzes the character and career of Slobodan Milosevic and explains how Kosovo provided the springboard for him to mobilize the Serbs and seize supreme power. It reveals the great lost opportunity of the February 1999 Rambouillet conference for peace and compromise in the southern Balkans. It explains how exiled Kosovar militants could take their war from Swiss cafes to the mountains of northern Albania. And it examines how and why NATO launched its first ever war - a 78-day campaign of high-tech air strikes against Serbia - believing the onslaught would be over in days. Based on research, eyewitness reports and interviews with the leading protagonists, Judah's book presents a detailed account of the origins of the Serb-Albanian conflict, the course of the war, involvement of the Western powers, the implications for the global strategic landscape, and the options for the future.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Tim Judah lived in Belgrade from 1990 to 1995, reporting for the London Times and the New York Review of Books; and when the "ethnic cleansing" started in Kosovo, he was there. So his Kosovo: War and Revenge is well placed to offer some insights, variously scathing and compassionate, on the whole, sorry mess. It doesn't matter how many Serbian tanks you (allegedly) knock out with your high-tech bombing raids, "since the most potent weapon in ethnic cleansing is the cigarette lighter needed to set houses on fire." And Judah can evoke the madness of Kosovo in a single, startling set piece: vengeful Albanians rampaging through a Serbian Orthodox priest's house, smashing icons, stealing candles; French soldiers from KFOR "looking on amiably"; a nearby Gypsy house also on fire; and a passing French commander explaining to an open-mouthed Judah that the official NATO policy at this moment is "to let them pillage." Paraphrasing a Belgrade journalist, he notes sadly that Serbia has still not found its Adenauer, nor Kosovo its Mandela, which is what both so desperately need. The introductory chapter, summarizing Kosovo's tortured and tortuous history, is better rendered in Noel Malcolm's Kosovo: A Short History, and for a wider overview of the Balkans themselves, one would certainly prefer Misha Glenny's The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers 1809-1999. For an acerbic and perceptive personal account, however, Judah's book is hard to beat. --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The war in Kosovo, Judah points out in his latest account of Balkan politics, didn't begin in 1999. A journalist covering the region for an array of Western publications (the Times of London, the New York Review of Books) throughout the 1990s, Judah (The Serbs) could see that Kosovo was on the brink of explosion--but until something tangible did erupt, his editors wouldn't print anything about it. In 1999, gruesome violence did erupt, culminating in NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. Now, having reported that conflict from the ground, Judah takes a step back to explore its roots in the events of the early 1980s and 1990s. Although not as strong as Noel Malcolm's 1998 book Kosovo: A Short History, Judah's work is an excellent addition to the literature about the Balkans. Drawing on both his firsthand experiences in the region and on secondary literature--and interspersing narrative history with journalistic accounts of warfare and fleeing refugees--he reflects on the longstanding local political struggles and the West's miscalculations. Along the way, he critically profiles Milosevic, NATO leaders (who thought this little war would last only a few days) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (whose own violent revenge began to sweep over Kosovo after the bombing ended). Well researched and melancholy, the book suggests that the bombing campaign was "a war of human error," in which "all the actors, in Serbia and in the West, just made mistake after mistake." This is an excellent introduction to the latest phase of Balkan warfare. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1St Edition edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300083548
• ISBN-13: 978-0300083545
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,822,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent, Comprehensive and Informative Book, January 27, 2000

By 

James Ron - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kosovo: War and Revenge (Hardcover)

Tim Judah has done it again! A regular correspondent for British and US newspapers in the Balkans, Judah has long provided Western readers with the very best in analytical reporting. He also wrote an excellent, insightful and compelling book on Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs, which was the best of the entire genre of Bosnia-war books.

Judah has now accomplished a second superb piece of analysis and reporting in record time. Working differently than most reporters and academics, Judah uncovers vital but difficult-to-obtain facts that go a long way towards illuminating some crucial puzzles. Where did the KLA come from? Why did it emerge when it did? What were its relations with other Kosovar political actors, including the former Kosovar leader, Ibrahim Rugova? Judah does a superb job of describing intra-Kosovar politics, exploring the trajectories of the different political factions during and after communism.

The most riveting accounts, however, are those dealing with the Rambouillet negotiations, whose failure led to the NATO war. Judah's blow-by-blow description of the tense struggles within the Kosovar delegation and the KLA are spellbinding. Not only is this unrivalled reporting and analysis, but this is great narrative writing.

Judah is perhaps weakest in his discussion of the expulsion itself following the NATO air war. Was the forced displacement already happening when the allied warplanes began their operations, as the Clinton administration argues? Or was the expulsion policy created by the air war itself? If so, was NATO's intervention a mistake? What might have Western actors done differently? Judah seems reluctant to speak out on these issues. He may lack the necessary information and if so, I applaud his caution.

In any case, this is a superb book. I highly recommend it to both experts and laypersons eager to gain a basic understanding of the conflict. To the best of my knowledge, this is the most informative, judicious and readable book now available. A must-read!

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of Kosovo's recent history, June 20, 2001

By 

P. Bjel (Richmond Hill, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kosovo: War and Revenge (Paperback)

When fighting in Kosovo began breaking out and hitting news tabloids in mid-1998, the problem was that few people knew about this region's history, let alone its location on the globe. No one could quite understand the motives of Serbs and Albanians, who were at odds with each other. When NATO began bombing rump Yugoslavia for its conduct against Kosovo Albanian civilians, uncritical (and heavily biased) media reports and press coverage were the only source of information that one could turn to for background. While this may have been better than nothing, this information was far from providing a critical and satisfactory explanation and understanding. This was the case, until Tim Judah wrote his second book, the current one now under review.

Judah is a Balkan expert, who speaks numerous languages (including Serbo-Croatian and Albanian) and has written several articles for many newspapers and magazines throughout the world. His previous book ("The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia" [New Haven, 1997 and 2000]) put the Bosnian war into its proper context, while the current puts Kosovo into its respective context. The first chapter is a short, condensed history of Kosovo leading up to the end of the Second World War, while the next sizable portion of the book details key events and personalities throughout the 1980s and 1990s that shaped modern-day Kosovo and unwittingly turned it toward a war-path. Judah discusses the outbreaks of violence in late 1997, the failed efforts of Western diplomats in stopping the bloodshed, a critical and thrilling chapter chronicling the failed Rambouillet peace accords in February 1999, a chapter chronicling NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and the aftermath of Kosovo's tragic conflict: vengeful Albanians returning home and killing Serbs and Roma.

Integral to Judah's work is his assessment of NATO's conduct in the conflict. His thesis is that the entire war was one of "human error," where Western diplomats foolishly believed that they could make Serbia's Milosevic back down within one week. Milosevic, on the other hand, believed NATO to be bluffing and took the alleged bluff. Tensions mounted within the NATO alliance, other world superpowers (in the military sense, aka. Russia and China) began bracing themselves for toil with the US, while Albanian and Serb civilians were either massacred or blown up by NATO's firepower. Totally unprepared of what to expect, NATO carried out blunder after blunder, failed to stop massacres in Kosovo and perhaps made the Balkans even more tense and unstable than before.

It is imperative that readers consult Judah's work for every meticulous detail surrounding Kosovo's recent history. Readers should consult other recent works in understanding Kosovo's ancient past to determine if Serbs really have rightful historical claims to the province, for Judah's first chapter is merely a primer. Of course, there are those critics out there that will cite, as I mentioned in another review, that Judah is not a "professional historian." It is likely that his knowledge, experience and excellent writing style makes his book more valuable and a much better, thrilling and informative read than the work of any academic.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six stars out of five, June 4, 2001

By 

heather tyler (sydney, nsw Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kosovo: War and Revenge (Paperback)

No matter how much graphic TV footage we saw and how many acres of newsprint we read on the Kosovo crisis, nothing gave us enough information about what was really going on. As with any war situation, information was often unavoidably contradictory and confused, tainted with propaganda. Politicians and historians and revisionists will probably mull over the recent events in Kosovo for years before presenting their views.

In the meantime we have war correspondents cranking up the pace with instant records. While the accounts of war journalists lack the historical perspective that can only occur over time, their freshness and immediacy can be electrifying and there is still opportunity for analysis.

Tim Judah's book is a fine example of what can be achieved. This is not a hasty account. Judah presents a surprisingly fair overview of the Kosovo crisis, which he has rigorously researched with exhaustive notes.

Judah fleshes out the major players from the 12th century to the 20th. He traces Kosovo's troubled history back to the Field of the Blackbirds in 1389 when the Serbian Prince Lazar and the Ottoman Sultan Murad faced off becaused Lazar refused to submit to Ottoman rule. Lazar and Murad died, the Serbs lost the battle. Orthodox Christians and Muslims co-existed uneasily for over 600 years, but Judah's details for much of that time are sketchy. Anyway, we get the picture: that's a long time to hone a grudge and perfect the most savage methods of revenge. He has more information about the history of Balkan bloodshed in the 20th century.

Fast forward to 1999 where Judah examines the polarisation of the murderous Milsosovic regime as the Kosovo crisis unfolds, he gives frontline reports of atrocities, details the burgeoning humanitarian disaster and the intense machinations behind the scenes as the crisis unfolded.

His account of the how the Kosovo Albanian and Serbian delegations, NATO and international peacemakers confronted each other over cheese and claret in a chateau in Rambouillet is as astute as it is entertaining. Judah dispells propaganda on all sides. There was also a lot of background about the formation of the KLA I had known nothing about.

He is contemptuous of experts in far away places passing judgment on the tragic events that unfolded, a viewpoint fairly typical of reporters in the field

Judah's objectivity has allowed for clarity - the hallmark of a great journalist. And this certainly is a great read by a journalist with formidable research skills and meticulous attention to detail.