This article offers a general overview of civilian crisis management in the EU, its mechanisms and instruments, the nature of civil-military cooperation (coordination), and an overview of civilian crisis management missions. Particular attention will be paid to the EULEX Mission in Kosovo as a case-study of how participating civilian experts judge both the mission itself and the mission preparations (i.e. selection and training of personnel, mission strategy, mission related activities, the problems identified etc.). The article will argue that seemingly trivial operational details, such as personnel selection, the quality of pre-deployment training and advance preparation are important factors which, if not properly coordinated, could jeopardise EU goals in the field of crisis management. The author also presumes that unregulated civil-military cooperation and coordination can lead to the failure of crisis management operations.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3158216
The goal of this article is to analyse the diplomatic activities of Slovenia, which as the presiding country of the EU Council had to deal with prevention of a potential renewal of armed conflict between ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians during the most crucial period of Kosovo’s path to independence, when possibilities of a new escalation of violence were imminent (from the 1st July 2007 to the date of the declaration of independence). However, we argue that the preventive diplomacy of Slovenia was not a necessity only in the time of the declaration of independence of Kosovo, but it was widened until the end of the Brdo process, started by the Slovenian Government in 2010. This attempt of the Slovene Primer Minister Borut Pahor to bring political leaders from the region, including Kosovar, regularly at the common ‘negotiating table’ was diluted, but as seen from the preventive diplomacy point of view, it was a positive attempt to stabilise the region. However, the EU missed this opportunity and current affairs in the region show that still lots of work has to be done if the EU would like to stabilise the Serbia-Kosovo neighbourhood.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31076189
Conquered by Serbia in 1912, Kosovo became a controversial international problem in 1997, six years after the breakdown of the SFR of Yugoslavia. Unique in some respects, Kosovo's case is also similar to many other politicalconflicts within multinational states related to ethnic, cultural andreligious divides. De facto separated from Serbia by a NATO "humanitarian intervention" in 1999, in 2008 Kosovo became an example of a successful "remedial secession", arguably concluding Yugoslavia's dissolution into seven independent states. Yet Kosovo's declaration of independence divided the international community as well as EU and NATO members. The ICJ's advisory opinion, although favourable to Kosovo's cause, did not legalise all secessions. In order to solidify peace and stability in the Western Balkans, the international community will for quite some time have to remain attentive to and actively involved in assisting this youngest European state and in helping Kosovo and Serbia normalise their relations
COBISS.SI-ID: 3198152