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Autori: SANDU Antonio Stefan                      BRADU Oana
              ARON Octavian                               BUCURENCIU Monica
              CALOTA Rodica                               SOCEA Iulia Elena
Revista romaneasca pentru educatie multidimensionala
Iasi, 2009
Nr. pag. 97

NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena SOCEA
Introduction
             There is no easy way for understanding NATO’s military intervention in the Kosovo conflict, more precisely, the bombing campaign in 1999. The        11-week bombing campaign conducted by NATO in spring 1999 against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has many claims to uniqueness. It was the first sustained use of armed force by the NATO alliance in its so-year  existence; the first time a major use of destructive armed force had been undertaken with the stated purpose of implementing UN Security Council resolutions, but without Security Council authorization; the first major bombing campaign intended to bring a halt to crimes against humanity being committed by a state within its own borders; and the first bombing campaign of which it could be claimed that it had on its own, and without sustained land operations, brought about a major change of policy by the target government. All these factors together make “NATO’s air strikes on Serbia one of the most significant aspects of Western intervention in the Balkans at the end of the twentieth century.”
            The official claim is that NATO’s actions were “driven by concerns about the human rights situation in Kosovo and the implications of a further escalation of the latent conflict there”.   On the other hand, there is a second view which states that beyond these, there were other reasons, of a more complex, strategic nature. “It has been argued that NATO’s military intervention was dictated predominantly by the need to establish a new role for itself in the post-Cold War conflict. Events in Kosovo, it is alleged, proved the ideal opportunity to do so. Supporters of this point of view point to a perceived implacable stance adopted by NATO with regard to Milosevic in March 1999 and its refusal to pursue a diplomatic solution, preferring instead to impose terms it new there were too humiliating for Serbs to accept.”
           One thing is sure: NATO’s air strikes on Serbia marked one of the most significant aspects of Western intervention in the Balkans at the end of the twentieth century.
           The questions that inevitably arise when we talk about the Kosovo conflict are the following:    What were NATO’s objectives? Why did NATO use force? Should NATO have used force? What other alternatives were available, if there were any?
           Before going into the debate concerning the diplomatic alternatives, it would be useful to clarify the idea of “humanitarian intervention” and how this applies to NATO’s intervention in Kosovo.
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