Gëzim Visoka

International governance and local resistance in Kosovo: The thin line between ethical, emancipatory and exclusionary politics

This paper examines the emergence and implications of local resistance against the practice of liberal peace-building in post-conflict Kosovo, as pursued by the international community and local authorities. Exploring the prospects and limitations of local resistance, as articulated through social movements and institutionalised forms of politics, enables us to examine the applicability and potential implications of post-liberal and emancipatory peace, approaches recently propogated by critical approaches to peace-building. Drawing on an original analysis of the discourse and affirmative action of local resistance against the international governance of Kosovo, this paper will argue that different types of local resistance articulate a thin line between ethical, emancipatory and exclusionary practices. Due to the inherent contradictions of resistance movements, the challenges associated with local ownership, grassroots democratisation, and the emancipation and empowerment of local agency cannot be resolved entirely. Indeed, there is a persistent danger that subalterns articulate their needs and interests not only according to an acceptable public transcript for the group’s inner dynamics, but also in relation to the dominant authority, whether it is local or international. This paper illustrates that where there is power there will be resistance, and where there is resistance there will be exclusion and further subordination.

The Complex Nature and Implications of International Engagement after Kosovo's Independence

This article examines the implications of two distinct phases of international engagement in Kosovo. We argue that a number of flaws developed during UNMIKs administration (1999–2008), which continue to undermine Kosovos stability. We then disentangle the complex inter-institutional relations between ICO, EULEX, UNMIK and the OSCE. Indeed, their incompatible positions towards Kosovos status results in a lack of clarity, coordination and coherence that weaken Kosovo within four policy areas: Kosovos international recognition and participation, the rule of law, inter-ethnic relations and the fate of North Kosovo. While these shortcomings could be viewed as ‘unintended consequences’, we argue more broadly that the Kosovo case illustrates the limits of liberal peacebuilding and the tensions and implications of strategic peacebuilding.

The ‘Kafkaesque Accountability’ of International Governance in Kosovo

Abstract This article explores the institutionalized and legalized forms of ‘unaccountability’ evident during the United Nations protracted and extensive administration of Kosovo, which were implemented to protect the UN from liability in case the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo was accused of human rights violations in Kosovo. Two mechanisms were put in place to review the accountability of international governance in Kosovo: the Ombudsperson Institution and later the Human Rights Advisory Panel. This article highlights how the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo systematically restricted and obstructed the operation of these mechanisms, by constraining the space for the independent and meaningful investigation of cases, by invoking immunity safeguards, and by failing to cooperate and remedy human rights abuses caused by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. This article argues that avoiding accountability for human rights abuses can seriously undermine the legitimacy of UN peacekeeping missions, establishing negative practices and losing the trust of the local population, which ultimately encourages undemocratic practices among weak and fragile local institutions. At the global level, any attempt to take on greater international responsibility without accountability harms the prospects for establishing global institutions structured around the principles of democratic governance.

Census politics and ethnicity in the Western Balkans

This article investigates how census politics in the Western Balkans take the form of a political device to entrench or transform ethnic demographics, which can have implications for cooperation and reciprocity between neighbouring states. We argue that the contingency of census politics spring from a trinomial interaction between actors claiming to represent the dominant nationalising state, national minority, and external homeland. Building on this triangulation, this article explores the interaction between the dominance of the nationalising states, the influence of the national minority, and the interest/interference of the external homeland in the 2011 censuses in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The article illustrates how census-taking is a highly politicised process in a region with hostile political dynamics, which revealed the unstable and contested nature of citizenship, ethnic belonging, weak civic identity, and fragile regional relations.

Peacebuilding and International Responsibility

This article expands the conceptual and empirical understanding of relational responsibility in peacebuilding, by unpicking the often ill-defined notion of responsibility into three discrete and hierarchical categories – attributability, answerability and accountability. Present practices of international responsibility for their executive powers in peacebuilding missions are more affiliated with attributability and answerability than accountability. In order to substantiate and elaborate empirically this differentiated account of responsibility, the article explores the UN and EU responsibility mechanisms in Kosovo, focusing on their institutional design, effectiveness and results, as well as highlighting practical limitations and problems. A more specific conceptualization of these practices, allows a clearer analysis of the aims and limitations of the mechanisms in place.

Peace is what we make of it? Peace-shaping events and ‘non-events’

Attempts to build peace often fail to achieve the intended outcomes. Such endeavours often lead to unintended effects shaped by multiple factors, events and actors. This raises the question: if the intentional actions that constitute peace processes do not succeed in bringing about their intended impact, what actually shapes peace? This article argues that peace is shaped by events and non-events within and beyond the liberal peace architecture, as well as being determined by local agents who are not directly or intentionally involved in peacebuilding endeavours. While the success of liberal peace is measured based on the generalised assemblage of selected events, the unintended, unanticipated and unprevented events that emerge as consequences arising from liberal peace actions are reduced to non-events to minimise responsibility. However, the power of these ignored non-events that occur at local institutional, public and everyday levels have been crucial to shaping the nature, process, duration and politics of peacebuilding. Unpacking the politicisation of events and non-events reveals that peace is what we make of it rather than a true reflection of the complex reality in conflict-affected societies. To substantiate this conceptualisation of abstruse peace, this article draws on examples from numerous events and non-events as experienced in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Timor-Leste.

The Promise and Future of Neo-Functional Peace: A Reply to Bergmann and Niemann: A reply to Bergmann and Niemann

Julian Bergmann and Arne Niemann claim that ‘neo†functional peace’ was insufficiently conceptualized and empirically unsubstantiated. They draw on the original neo†functionalist literature to propose a logic of spillover to explain the European Unions external policies. We argue that our original article is not damaged by this critique and its explanation of the EUs approach in the Serbia†Kosovo case stands. We accept the need for further work, based on analysis of different examples and sectors, which can clarify the conceptual boundaries of neo†functional peace and test it against other cases.

Local Resistance and the Politics of Self-Determination

The protracted international governance and the fluid policy of peacebuilding and statebuilding brewed local dissatisfaction and local resistance in Kosovo, entrenching local insistence to exercise the right to self-determination and end neo-colonial interventionism. This chapter explores the dynamics of local resistance, the fluid repertoire of contentious politics, and their impact on peacebuilding in Kosovo. The central argument of this chapter is that although local resistance has the potential to counter-balance and challenge the power of fluid interventionism and reduce the popularity of ethno-nationalist structurers, it can also trigger peace-breaking and counter-emancipatory dynamics, thus unintentionally prolonging the ungovernability of peace. Accordingly, this chapter illustrates the importance of speaking truth to resistance as much as speaking truth to power.

Albanian peacekeepers : exploring the inward-looking utility of international peacekeeping

ABSTRACT This article provides the first comprehensive account of Albania’s contribution to international peacekeeping and explores its inward-looking rationales for providing peacekeepers. Specifically, we examine why Albania has energetically supported NATO- and EU-led military and crisis management operations and less so UN peacekeeping missions. We find that Albania’s contribution to peacekeeping operations has been primarily shaped by its inward-looking interests for accelerating membership in NATO, fostering integration in the EU, as well as reducing domestic and regional insecurities. Pinpointing accurately the motivations among troop-contributing states helps recover the true hierarchical order of rationales and explain why, in some cases, the performance and impact of peacekeeping operations for some contributing states is secondary. Overall, disentangling the inward-looking utility of peacekeeping by a small state such as Albania provides useful insights for understanding how regional integration dynamics affect peacekeeping.

Intervention, Peace, and the State

This introductory chapter outlines key themes and approaches used in this book and elaborates key strands of the argument. The chapter explores the complex interplay between local and international forces that shaped peace in Kosovo. It offers a vivid summary of fluid interventionism as a new conceptual perspective for understanding the changing character of international missions in post-conflict societies. It also discusses the role of local ethno-nationalist elites in co-producing an ungovernable peace, the ebbs and pitfalls of local resistance, and the efforts of civil society for local peace formation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the methodological aspects of the book and highlights the key features of a local critical epistemology of peace.