Civil Society Development in a Post-Conflict Area: Lessons from the Experience of USAID’s Kosovo Transition Initiative

The international effort to reconstruct and develop Kosovo in the wake of the NATO war to end Serbian repression of the majority Albanian population in the province represents a possibly unprecedented scale of international effort and commitment. The multitude of international donors present in such a relatively small and geographically isolated area underscores a significant effort at fundamental transformation of the community, and since much of this effort particularly emphasized democratization as a significant lever for instituting a long-term and profound change in the politics of the area, the case represents a significant opportunity to examine a variety of the theoretical claims of democratization and civil society development. Of particular interest to me is the experience of USAID in the province and how American strategic objectives and political philosophy informed the development of transition programming in the province. The experience of USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives potentially provides a host of answers to questions of how such assistance should be conducted and what outcomes can be expected from such transition assistance. An examination of the literature pertaining to political development an