(Link at bottom)
Kosovo's president seeks NATO support for creating army
On March 14th,
the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, announced his nation’s plans to increase
their security force to a full-fledged army with heavy weaponry and equipment.
NATO, as well as rival Serbia, are against this move. Kosovo’s constitution
only allows for the security force, and an amendment is needed to change this
through their parliament. However, some of their parliament is made up of Serb
minority, who have boycotted parliament over the poor relationship Kosovo
maintains with Serbia. If the increase is made without full parliamentary
procedure, NATO and the United States may decide to withhold international and
agency cooperation. President Thaci went on to say that establishing the
security force as an actual military would help pave the way towards becoming a
member of NATO, and that Serbia did not support the move (or recognize Kosovo
as a sovereign state) since they are backed by Russia.
In relation to the
reading, this article discusses how the United States reacts to a nation
building up its military strength in a region which has seen much instability
over the last 2 decades. On page 246 of the reading, Kosovo is mentioned as a
rebellious province in the former Republic of Yugoslavia, during the late 1990’s,
in which violence was occurring. NATO peacekeepers went in to relieve the
situation, and this aided the American hope of bringing in new states from the
former USSR to be allies of NATO nations, and eventually (in the case of Romania,
Bulgaria Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states) members
themselves. Bringing these nations closer to the U.S. gave them more regional
power, and weakened the Russian’s chance of maintaining a large sphere of
influence. With Kosovo currently hoping to join the NATO alliance, this would
be a further hit to the possibility of Russia holding a strong area where they
have the most influence. The article states that the United States would pull
aid to Kosovo if they did not follow a proper route to creating an army, which
demonstrates the Americans’ power in helping determine international affairs. The
increase of NATO nations and the United States’ power and influence in
determining events within the organization shows how the trend of America’s
leadership in NATO is continuing.
Great post Matt!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this post. I really like how the article you found had continuity in how the U.S. and NATO try to decrease Russia's influence and countries within its "buffer zone" like we discussed in class today.
I think it's important that the article mentioned how the U.S. "would pull aid to Kosovo if they did not follow a proper route to creating an army" to make sure that Kosovo was going on a proper path (Your blog post). Yet I do see a possible problem with this, how would this pulling of aid occur. If it is not too fast or without enough thought then it could leave Kosovo in a bad condition that may cause uprising and a fight for power to create a worse situation than before.
Hi Matt!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on your post! I also found an article on NATO for this assignment. I think its really important when you mention the extent of the United State's power in relation to Kosovo and NATO. I agree it is a continuation from the reading for class. I like how you were able to directly relate the references to Kosovo from your article and the book. Great post.