Kosovo and International Society

"This book asks how NATO came to launch its first war. It explains the international engagement with the Kosovo conflict from the dissolution of Yugoslavia to the end of Operation Allied Force in 1999. It begins by showing how diplomats and statesmen, led by British figures, deliberately excluded the Kosovo conflict from the search for peace. While Bosnia burned, those that argued that the same could happen in Kosovo were ignored. It goes on to show how the combination of New Labour in Britain and Madeleine Albright in the US led to the forging of a shaky alliance dedicated to the prevention of ethnic cleansing. It charts diplomacy in the build-up to war, showing the pivotal role that Russia played, and exposes many of the myths that are now commonplace in public debates about the war."--Jacket.