Autonomous province building: identification theory and the failure of UNMIK

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) was established to maintain peace and security and create a functioning democratic interim administration pending determination on the province's final status. UNMIK's tenure has been marked by a failure to achieve any meaningful reconciliation between the Albanian and Serbian communities or to halt the periodic outbreaks of violence. This paper will assert that contrary to both popular opinion and UNMIK's assertions, the administration's manifest inability to realize either inter-communal peace or significant political progress is a consequence of UNMIK's own policies rather than intransigent enmity on the part of the Kosovar population. UNMIK's inability to build a stable political system in Kosovo is a consequence of its adoption of ethnicity as the paramount political cleavage, its inability to provide basic security and its reluctance to deal with Kosovo's final status