'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore

This paper examines the humanitarian intervention undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo between 24 March and 10 June 1999. Following an examination of the wider ideological and historical background to the Kosovo crisis, it establishes three p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kumar Ramakrishna
Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Format: Working Paper
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/91812
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/4454
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-91812
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-918122020-11-01T08:44:44Z 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore Kumar Ramakrishna S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions::Asia::Singapore This paper examines the humanitarian intervention undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo between 24 March and 10 June 1999. Following an examination of the wider ideological and historical background to the Kosovo crisis, it establishes three postulates: first, despite Brussels' attempts to justify its illegal violation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a moral necessity - in view of Belgrade's ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar Albanians - it is fair to suggest that more traditional realpolitik reasons were equally if not more important drivers of the decision to attack. Second, the paper shows that despite the great faith placed by NATO in its capacity to wage a high-technology air campaign blending lethality with accuracy, thereby keeping casualties to a minimun, in reality the bombing contributed directly to the suffering of both Kosovars and Serb civilians, while not significantly degrading the Serb war machine. In short, the air campaign was dubious both strategically and morally. Third, the paper argues that because relatively widespread scepticism about NATO war aims and campaign strategy undermined Brussels' credibility, its propaganda, whilst techinically sound, was not at all persuasive as far as the Serb and some elements of the Western public were concerned. The paper ends by highlighting two important wider implications of the Kosovo campaign for Singapore. First, it argues that while the international comnunity is embracing the idea of humanitarian intervention as a global norm, the current lack of argreed-upon criteria for evaluating its appropriateness for specific contexts implies the danger of abuse by powerful states bypassing the pernnially enervated United Nations. Second, the largely American-dominated Western media - rather than being the purportly impartial fourth estate of the liberal imagination - can, as Kosovo clearly demonstrates, act as the de facto rhetorical arm of their governments. It is in Singapore's interests, therefore, to contribute to the development of objective criteria for determining the situations under which intervention for humanitarian reasons is legally defensible, while the influence and power of the Western media suggests that Singapore most retain a strong capacity to compete with the transnational media giants in shaping and regulating popular perceptions. 2009-02-05T09:32:57Z 2019-12-06T18:12:20Z 2009-02-05T09:32:57Z 2019-12-06T18:12:20Z 2002 2002 Working Paper Kumar Ramakrishna. (2000). 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore. (RSIS Working Paper, No. 6). Singapore: Nanyang Technological University. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/91812 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/4454 RSIS Working Papers ; 06/00 Nanyang Technological University 37 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions::Asia::Singapore
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions::Asia::Singapore
Kumar Ramakrishna
'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
description This paper examines the humanitarian intervention undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo between 24 March and 10 June 1999. Following an examination of the wider ideological and historical background to the Kosovo crisis, it establishes three postulates: first, despite Brussels' attempts to justify its illegal violation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a moral necessity - in view of Belgrade's ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar Albanians - it is fair to suggest that more traditional realpolitik reasons were equally if not more important drivers of the decision to attack. Second, the paper shows that despite the great faith placed by NATO in its capacity to wage a high-technology air campaign blending lethality with accuracy, thereby keeping casualties to a minimun, in reality the bombing contributed directly to the suffering of both Kosovars and Serb civilians, while not significantly degrading the Serb war machine. In short, the air campaign was dubious both strategically and morally. Third, the paper argues that because relatively widespread scepticism about NATO war aims and campaign strategy undermined Brussels' credibility, its propaganda, whilst techinically sound, was not at all persuasive as far as the Serb and some elements of the Western public were concerned. The paper ends by highlighting two important wider implications of the Kosovo campaign for Singapore. First, it argues that while the international comnunity is embracing the idea of humanitarian intervention as a global norm, the current lack of argreed-upon criteria for evaluating its appropriateness for specific contexts implies the danger of abuse by powerful states bypassing the pernnially enervated United Nations. Second, the largely American-dominated Western media - rather than being the purportly impartial fourth estate of the liberal imagination - can, as Kosovo clearly demonstrates, act as the de facto rhetorical arm of their governments. It is in Singapore's interests, therefore, to contribute to the development of objective criteria for determining the situations under which intervention for humanitarian reasons is legally defensible, while the influence and power of the Western media suggests that Singapore most retain a strong capacity to compete with the transnational media giants in shaping and regulating popular perceptions.
author2 S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
author_facet S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Kumar Ramakrishna
format Working Paper
author Kumar Ramakrishna
author_sort Kumar Ramakrishna
title 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
title_short 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
title_full 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
title_fullStr 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
title_full_unstemmed 'Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by NATO : strategic lessons for Singapore
title_sort 'humanitarian intervention in kosovo' as justified, executed and mediated by nato : strategic lessons for singapore
publishDate 2009
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/91812
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/4454
_version_ 1688665388127092736