An interesting development in the forever-stalled final status of Kosovo. Back in July, RFERL reported that the issue may be moved from the UN to the Contact Group for the Balkans, formed back during the war in Bosnia.
However, the move to turn to the Contact Group may be inspired less by the hope of reviving talks between Serbia and Kosovo, than an attempt to outmaneuver Russia. Unlike in the UN Security Council, Russia has no veto power in the Contact Group.Alain Deletroz, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, an influential think tank, says that resorting to the Contact Group may also help the EU to circumvent its own internal divisions on Kosovo. Several EU member states are thought to harbor doubts on Kosovo’s independence, although a tenuous consensus exists at the EU level to support it.
Deletroz said in a briefing in Brussels on July 17 that the “key EU member states” in the group—Britain, Germany, France, and Italy—could assume the responsibility for an EU decision, allowing skeptics to lie low.
A few days ago, RFERL sat down with the US envoy to the Contact Group who made it clear that this is the final step as far as the United States is concerned.
US and EU recognition of an independent Kosovo is essentially all that UN approval is, minus Russia. The UN will continue to be the primary forum of debate and discussion, however ad hoc groups of like minded (i.e. Western) powers will continue to be the real engine of decision making (NATO, EU, G8). Evoking TS Eliot, this is the way the UN ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
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Bosnia » Blog Archive » Bosnia & Herzegovina: “Enjoy Life”? Video Campaign added these pithy words on Aug 09 07 at 8:41 am[...] An interesting development in the forever-stalled final status of Kosovo. Back in July, RFERL reported that the issue may be moved from the UN to the Contact Group for the Balkans , formed back during the war in Bosnia. However, the move to turn to… …more [...]
ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Could Kosovo Make or Break Europe? added these pithy words on Nov 02 07 at 10:56 pm[...] final status of Kosovo, the December 10th deadline looms. As previously reported, talks have been moved outside of the United Nations and are currently underway in the Contact Group. The deadline for resolving Kosovo’s final [...]
El Jefe Maximo added these pithy words on 09 Aug 07 at 2:10 amWhat a splendid blog: I have blogrolled it on my own.
So the new century begins where the old one did: with one damn-fool thing after another in the Balkans, (to butcher Prince Bismarck) which produces more history than it can consume locally.
I don’t blame the Kosovars for wanting independence. If the EU decides to block it—I hope they’re the ones who have to put up the troops to hold them down, and that we Americans get out of that quarrel.
As for the Russians: I have favored closer relations between the US and Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, but I must confess a certain lack of sympathy for their position on the Kosovo issue, and that of Serbia. I suppose I blame both powers for Big Mistake No. 1 (1914-18).
IJ added these pithy words on 09 Aug 07 at 2:49 pmOutmanoeuvring Russia?
It sounds more like an attempt to get round an ineffective official system at the United Nations, which has hundreds of territorial disputes still to adjudicate – including the Falkland Islands. Consequently wars continue over the disputed territories.
The United Nations is long overdue an audit of its effectiveness.
IJ added these pithy words on 10 Aug 07 at 7:57 pmThe ineffectiveness of the UN is also on show in the Arctic. Russiablog talks of the dispute over land ownership there, and refers to the Wall Street Journal:
“Power, not international law, will settle the issue. Indeed, international law recognizes this fact by making title dependent on a nation’s ability to exert control over an area. . . That is why Russia is sending ships into the Arctic, and why Canada is saying that it will patrol the Northwest Passage. As long as such expressions of power are credible, other nations, disadvantaged by distance, will generally acquiesce and sovereignty will be extended accordingly. Russia’s expression of power is credible; Canada’s is not. Canada cannot prevent other countries from sending ships up the Northwest Passage, as the U.S. has demonstrated from time to time for just this purpose”?.
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