Kosovo Specialist Chambers Jurisdiction and the International Criminal Court

The establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers as a local war crimes court is coming as a challenge to the overall authority and jurisdiction claimed by the International Criminal Court. These two courts are at the same time divided and connected in so many aspects. Kosovo war crimes have been dealt in the past by icty, unmik, eulex courts and now a specially made ksc. The ksc as being a local court is still practically having above it the icty and the Mechanism which inherited the icty but also the possible application of the icc. We will compare the ksc to other courts having local jurisdiction in Kosovo with an aim to understand if the ksc is an exception or a rule from now on in certain post-conflict societies. The exclusion of the icc from adjudicating in Kosovo is a challenge and potential solution to other post-conflict societies, and they can apply its various forms and practices and overall ignore the icc in the future. Although icc is the only international criminal court it is not the only specialised court dealing with war crimes now. The ksc and icc overall struggle for jurisdiction have been also shadowed by the global political struggle for primacy, leaving these and many other local and international institutions without a real power, functioning in a framework of and for various political aims. The special characteristics and mandate ksc has makes it worth researching in order to better understand the icc and the overall understanding of International War Crimes courts/Tribunal worldwide today and in the future.

Written on the Darkest Pages of Human History, 1991–2000

From the standpoint of the 1990s, the twentieth century seems to have ended on especially depressing notes. Run through the catalogue of tragedy: the hopeful Oslo Accords go dead with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995); Serbian-Slovenian War (1991); Serbian-Croatian War (1991–1995); Bosnian War (1992–1996); first Congo War (1996–1997); Great War of Africa (1998–2003), where 6 million were killed; and the Kosovo War (1998–1999). Their driving force was nationalism, undoubtedly, some found themselves the key. For Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (Myanmar) her choice in the three-tiered political identity was the nation for which she gave up her family and all the global ideals in the beginning of her career: human rights, democracy, and individual freedom.

Sovereignty Sensitivities and the Kosovo Crisis: The Impact of Domestic Considerations on Canada’s Foreign Policy

In 1999, Canada participated in NATO’s Operation Allied Force, a seventy- eight-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia meant to end the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians. Officially, Canada’s interests in developing its foreign policy toward Kosovo were humanitarian and regional stability considerations. These were shared with the rest of its NATO allies. Thus, on the surface, it would seem that Canada and its NATO allies had similar concerns during the decision-making process around Kosovo. Digging deeper, an analysis of the primary sources available suggests that Canada did, in fact, have additional and unique considerations during the Kosovo crisis, namely national unity. This analysis amply illustrates the close interconnection between domestic issues and Canadian foreign policy. During the Kosovo War, Canada had to balance sovereignty sensitivities with humanitarian concerns. From the first time Kosovo was mentioned in Parliament on 18 November 1991 to the end of the Kosovo War on 11 June 1999, Canadian parliamentarians attempted to distinguish what Canada’s views on Kosovo were. Historians have likewise been occupied with the same task: distinguishing the Canadian contribution and position. Like the parliamentarians, not one of the Canadian historians who has written on the topic has questioned the official government version of what motivated Canada’s policy in Kosovo. They all credit a combination of humanitarian and regional concerns. Therefore, there was consensus at the time, and has been since, about what motivated Canada’s policy toward Kosovo. However, an analysis of the primary sources reveals that Canada did in fact have an additional and unique consideration during the Kosovo crisis: national unity. Canada’s domestic national unity issue influenced Canadian foreign policy toward Kosovo at every stage.

Theorising ‘Good Personhood’ in Rural Kosovo: Inconspicuous Coexistence and Local Serb Responses to Security and Identity Dilemmas

This paper explores the everyday experiences, perceptions, and practices of Kosovo Serbs residing in the rural fabric of Southeast Kosovo with regard to security-related issues. Building on previous qualitative social research conducted in Central Kosovo, it particularly investigates how local responses of ordinary Serbs reflect a certain pragmatic performativity in the face of Kosovo Albanians. In-depth interviews and focus groups were held with locals, while field observation was conducted to construct locally nuanced knowledge about the relations between ordinary Serbs, their identity, and the surrounding landscape. Similar to the Central Kosovo study’s findings, the results confirm that in Southeast Kosovo, local Serbs neither displayed nor unfolded forms of vernacularism or disloyalty toward Kosovo Albanians. Conversely, they were found reflecting on potential creative solutions for tackling poverty and underdevelopment in the hope of avoiding replications of post-1999 Kosovo War ideologies emanated by respective national media coverages and political rhetoric. Moreover, it is argued that security experts have de facto overlooked untapped processes of present-day interethnic coexistence and resilience between Serbs and Albanians in the rural fabric by largely giving salience to the tense atmosphere in the Serb-majority urban clusters of North Kosovo. In fact, results also show that Kosovo Serbs pragmatically perform an account of quotidian practices for restoring a sense and self-image of ‘personhood’ in the eyes of the ‘ethnic other’. Employing a research approach that aimed at avoiding unnecessary ethnicisation, this paper sheds light on a peace potential and true civic responsibility that emerged spontaneously from Kosovo Serb voices. Overall, the paper lays the ground for debating the notion of ‘personhood’ as a lens through which to unravel inconspicuous yet present interethnic coexistence in post-conflict Kosovo.

Anti-sociologisme, Zionism, and Islamophobia in Philippe Val’s Charlie Hebdo

In this article, I examine Charlie Hebdo, under the editorship of Philippe Val from 1994 to 2005, and how it reported on themes related to Islam and Muslims, both in France and abroad, particularly in relation to the satanic breasts controversy and the Hebron massacre in 1994, the Kosovo war, 9/11, and the 2005 banlieues riots in France. I argue that despite the plurality of voices within the magazine, Val succeeded through his editorial line to establish and promote a link between antisemitism and Muslims and produce a narrative that harbours Islamophobia. By conflating Arabs and Muslims, pro-Palestinianism and postcolonialism, and by arguing that anti-Semitism is inherent in Islam, Val sowed the first seeds of Islamophobia in Charlie Hebdo’s editorial line as early as 1994. This reached its culmination first in 9/11 then in the Mohamed caricatures, and has consistently and irreversibly continued to shape the magazine’s ethos.

Kosovo

This chapter offers an in-depth look at health politics and the tax-financed health system in Kosovo, a system which is in a process of transition towards social health insurance. It traces the development of Kosovo’s healthcare system, characterized by the establishment of a decentralized free-for-all-at-point-of-delivery health system during communism. After the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, Kosovo started actively seeking independence. Until the declaration of independence in 2008, politics in the country was mainly focused on the state-building process, while health policy was not a priority. Although facilitated by international organizations, legislation for establishing a social health insurance has been passed, the social health insurance system has not been implemented yet. Thus, healthcare services still remain financed by state and municipal budgets, medical professionals are public employees, and the private sector is not integrated into the public insurance system. Key healthcare issues have been high out-of-pocket payments, mainly for pharmaceuticals and private services, inequalities in health access, and high unemployment rates, which are likely to undermine the collection of social insurance contributions in the future.

An Examination of The U.S. Military Intervention Against the Islamic State in Iraq

This article focuses on the politics of U.S. intervention against the Islamic State. In the last two decades after the 9\11, the U.S. intervened in many countries in different ways. For example, the U.S. forces and its allies fully intervened in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003. After the dynamic changes in the Middle East and the era of Arab spring the intervention has changed in different way. Especially when the terrorist organizations rose the U.S. has repeated the same way used in the Kosovo war (1999) against the Islamic State, which has not fully intervened. U.S. public opinion plays a great role in U.S. politics. Regional and international relations between countries are crucial. It will be worth addressing Turkey, Iran, and Kurdish forces in regional considerations because all of them have a border with the Islamic State. Besides, the IS directly and indirectly, has impacted on them. In international considerations, the U.S. usually makes a coalition and alliance to intervene in countries and groups. The purpose of the study is to understand the politics of U.S. intervention against the Islamic State. This article examines it from three perspectives: firstly, a change in the U.S. policy of intervention; secondly, the U.S. domestic political considerations; thirdly, Regional and International considerations. Following this evaluation, this study answering the question: Why has the U.S. not fully intervened against the Islamic State? This research concludes that the U.S. should change its policy of intervention from one time to another. The U.S. should change its military tactics from one war to another war. The American government should understand how its domestic politics and other countries feel about the politics of U.S. intervention against I.S. ultimately; it appears that the politics of U.S. intervention are complex. However, there is still a way to understand it.