Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (Crises in World Politics) [Hardcover]

Iain King (Author), Whit Mason (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0801445396 | ISBN-13: 978-0801445392 | Publication Date: September 1, 2006 | Edition: 1

In June 1999, after three months of NATO air strikes had driven Serbian forces back from the province of Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council authorized creation of an interim civilian administration. Under this mandate, the UN was empowered to coordinate reconstruction, maintain law and order, protect human rights, and create democratic institutions. Six years later, the UN's special envoy to Kosovo, Kai Eide, described the state of Kosovo: "The current economic situation remains bleak. . . . respect for rule of law is inadequately entrenched and the mechanisms to enforce it are not sufficiently developed. . . . with regard to the foundation of a multiethnic society, the situation is grim." In Peace at Any Price, Iain King and Whit Mason describe why, despite an unprecedented commitment of resources, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), supported militarily by NATO, has failed to achieve its goals. Their in-depth account is personal and passionate yet analytical and tightly argued. Both authors served with UNMIK and believe that the international community has a duty to intervene in regional conflicts, but they suggest that Kosovo reveals the difficult challenges inherent in such interventions. They also identify avoidable mistakes made at nearly every juncture by the UN and NATO. We can be sure that the international community will be called on to intervene again to restore the peace of shattered countries. The lessons of Kosovo, cogently presented in Peace at Any Price, will be critically important to those charged with future missions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is to their immense credit that one of the most noticeable aspects of the work is the almost complete lack of discernable bias towards either side.... The authors have presented what will rightly be seen as one of the most perceptive accounts ever written on the practical difficulties associated with peace building in the aftermath of ethnic conflict. All-in-all, this work is an extremely important and very well written account of the work of the UN in Kosovo. -- Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans

PICKING up this book one might be tempted to splutter in amazement at its subtitle. How the world failed Kosovo? Compare and contrast with Iraq: number of peacekeepers killed in Kosovo by hostile forces? Zero. Resources? Twenty-five times more money and 50 times as many troops, if measured on a per head basis, than in Afghanistan. So, with troops dying daily in Iraq and Afghanistan and with billions of dollars poured into them only to shatter the former and turn the latter into the biggest drugs producer in the world, Kosovo would actually seem to be a world-class success, hardly a failure. The authors, both of whom have worked for the UN mission in Kosovo, would beg to differ. And despite its rather sensationalist title, they have produced an excellent and timely book.

Although it has hardly made the front pages, there has been some intense discreet diplomacy concerning this problematic legacy of the Balkan wars in recent weeks. Talks on Kosovo's future began in February under the aegis of the UN and are led by the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. Technically Kosovo remains a part of Serbia, but since 1999 it has been under the jurisdiction of the UN. Of its 2m people more than 90% are ethnic Albanians who want nothing less than full independence. Serbia and Kosovo's Serbian minority reject this. Mr Ahtisaari says that the likelihood of Serbs and Albanians reaching a compromise is as likely as two men having a baby together.

He will probably soon recommend some form of independence for Kosovo. It is quite possible, when he does, that violence will break out again. At that point, anyone who wants to know what has happened in Kosovo since NATO's intervention in 1999 will be relieved to find this detailed book analysing the work of the UN, which has tried to administer the place for the last six years, and whose mandate is now coming to an end. The authors find much to criticise, and in much of this they are justified. However, many of their comments are made with the benefit of hindsight, and they are harsh.

What is refreshing are their frank judgments. For example: "Most Albanians who took up arms to challenge Serbian oppression did not object to one ethnic group bullying all the others; they simply wanted their group to be the one on top." The authors believe the UN should have been more robust about challenging what they call the "thugocracy" which they say emerged in the wake of the Kosovo war. This is true, but as they point out, most of the damage was done in the first few weeks and months after the war when the UN did not have the resources to do it, although NATO did.

This is a serious and well-considered book, which makes suggestions about what has gone wrong and how such mistakes can be avoided by future international missions. "The overriding lesson from Kosovo", say the writers, "is this: stable societies don't just happen, they are built. An international administration must be prepared to confront and defeat the forces that preserve the unacceptable aspects of the status quo." Most readers of The Economist would agree with that. But very few of those readers are Kosovars, let alone Iraqis, Afghans or Sudanese. Herein lies the real problem perhaps? -- The Economist September 21, 2006

This remarkable book could not be more timely .... they deserve to be warmly congratulated for a cogently argued, brilliantly presented and, above all, highly informative and thought-provoking piece of work. -- International Affairs

"The authors, both of whom have worked for the UN mission in Kosovo...have produced an excellent and timely book." -- The Economist, September 21, 2006

The aim in winning the peace following the 1999 Kosovo war was stated early and often: "to transform Kosovo into a society in which all its members could live in security and dignity." But that is not what has happened. Why not? Because it was a wrong war? No, say the authors. Because the mission was too much for the international community? No again. Because the wrong people were in charge? Once more, no. Rather, because too little was understood about the obstacles, too little was provided for the mission early on, too little was done to overcome the inevitable disunity among multiple agencies, too unrealistic was the timeframe. The authors end with ten lessons, among them: security before democracy, focus less on ending wars than establishing a just peace, the "overall vision is more important than detailed objectives," and "a mission must be prepared to assert its authority from day one." -- Foreign Affairs May 2007

This book is a personal and compelling account of what has gone wrong in Kosovo and how the process of building stable societies can be done better in the future. -- Journal of Peace Research

From the Back Cover

"Cogent ,timely, and comprehensive, this well written and often compelling book should be read by all who want to make a success of what the international community has so far mostly failed at—rebuilding states after conflict. Kosovo is, on a per capita basis, the world's most heavyweight modern attempt at reconstructing a state after war. It has so far failed and we need to know why, what went wrong, and what we need to do better. This book, written by two people who took part, is the first comprehensive study of the Kosovo operation and provides a much needed, balanced, and convincing review of what has happened and what we must not allow to happen again."—Lord Paddy Ashdown, GCMG, former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

"The authors have lived and worked the issues they write about for years. The benefits are evident: a book that is profoundly researched, sensible, intelligent and important."—Jason Burke, The Observer

"Peace at Any Price is an important, timely, and comprehensive addition to our understanding of the difficult, but vital, process of conflict transformation. Iain King and Whit Mason provide a frank account of the international community's experience in Kosovo and a valuable guide to building stable societies in war-torn regions."—Dana Eyre, USIP

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 303 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801445396
• ISBN-13: 978-0801445392
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > History > Europe > Serbia

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incisive and Compelling, May 16, 2007

By 

Guy Edmunds (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (Crises in World Politics) (Hardcover)

In the past decade, Kosovo has only ever hit the headlines because of violence and tragedy. Ethnic cleansing, war crimes, NATO intervention: these events dominated the news agenda for the first six months of 1999 and defined Kosovo's international reputation. Sadly, destruction is more telegenic than construction, and the important attempts to steer Kosovo towards a better future have received far less attention.

The authors' task is to tell the story of the UN mission that has administered Kosovo from the early days after NATO intervention through to - presumably - its imminent independence (conditional, supervised or however formulated). This is the first significant study of UNMIK, and succeeds brilliantly in illuminating its challenges, dilemmas and limitations.

From its uncertain first steps, by 2001 UNMIK oversaw the largest per-capita investment in peacebuilding that the world has ever seen. Yet the returns on that investment have been unimpressive, yielding a host of lessons that the "international community" urgently needs to learn if it is to succeed in elsewhere.

Paying particular attention to the orchestrated ethnic violence of March 2004, the authors convincingly portray an international community consistently unwilling to confront hardliners in the Kosovo Albanian community. This timidity is the source of the failure identified in the title, and has long-term consequences for Kosovo and its population.

As a ground-breaking study, the book almost inevitably left me wanting more. What could UNMIK realistically have achieved, given the timeframe and resources available? How much influence could a short-term mission - however well-resourced - really exert over Kosovo's long-term development? Social and political change is a long-term process, yet western politics - under the scrutiny of the 24-hour media - demands rapid results. Do we really have the stomach for the necessary long-term engagement, or are we content simply with the illusion that something is being done?

Necessarily, the authors have been more conservative in their aims, but in exploring UNMIK's successes and failures, they have rendered a great service to those who must grapple with these problems. We can only hope that future Donald Rumsfelds will choose to listen, and be willing to learn.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Analysis, November 25, 2007

By 

M Braithwaite-Young "Matt B-Young" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (Crises in World Politics) (Hardcover)

Peace at any Price Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (Crises in World Politics)was recommended to me as probably the most authorative work on the UN work in Kosovo.

The authors were deeply involved on the ground there, and it shows in the depth and quality of the analysis.

The book contains an excellent description and chronology of overall events. It then moves into a deeper analysis and consideration of what happened, before a final (brilliant) conclusions section which is really what made this book so worthwhile for me.

Although Peace at any Price is a brilliant macro analysis of the Kosovo intervention, there are loads of examples and personal accounts which bring the analysis to life.

I read Peace at any Price alongside Joe Sacco's also excellent "Safe Area Gorazde" Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 and found that Sacco's work added an additional level of human and emotional understanding, on top of Mason's analysis of the events.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Who said UNMIK doesn't have a flair for the overdramatic?, May 15, 2011

By 

Pete - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo (Crises in World Politics) (Hardcover)

Not to put too fine of a point on it but, I was in Kosovo for 7+ years (including the timeframe that this book addresses and was written in) and find the book to be a poor, if not rather salacious, portrait of the situation in Kosovo at that time (and even today). That is not to say, that things were not tense nor that the book has its basic facts wrong in respect to the events surrounding the 2004 riots but rather that its analysis of those events overstates, at least in my experience/observation, the severity of the situation.

One of the reasons that the UN has been criticized for not having been as successful as it should've/could've been in Kosovo has to do with how distant its employees were from the population. (Sadly, EULEX is even worse in this regard.) This book reads like it was written, as indeed it was, by so many of those UNMIX employees who spent their days writing overly dramatic reports to justify their jobs, spent their evenings in Prishtina's internal-friendly bars and restaurants, and their weekends in Greece or Macedonia socializing with anyone but Kosovars, and not written by those who actually took the time to learn the language, meet the people (Serbs and Albanians), and who didn't have as much of a financially motivated agenda to pursue.

Of authors who write about Kosovo, Noel Malcolm is probably the best (but not as focused on contemporary issues); however, Tim Judah, Robert Elsie, James Pettifer, and Antonia Young are all worth a look. Of course, Elizabeth Gowing, everyone's favorite expat beekeeper and all-round Albanophile, has a new book out which looks to be one of the few (perhaps only) books that provides a well-rounded look at things that are positive in Kosovo today.