NATO’s Intervention in Kosovo

The intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to counter violence and ethnic cleaning against Kosovar Albanians resulted in a protracted bombing campaign to get Serbian President, Slobodan Milošević, to surrender and sign the Rambouillet Agreement that would determine the potential independence of Kosovo from Serbian sovereign territory. However, Milošević did not sign the Agreement and continued with further atrocities to focus on the conflict that would distract voters from acknowledging an array of internal problems that Serbia was facing. The intentions of NATO were to oppose violence and engage in the sabotage of Serbian governmental and military constellations, but 90 bombing incidents did not always hit their anticipated targets and some decision-making did kill civilian workers, which obscured the principle of military necessity due to contravention of proportionality. NATO did not obtain permission from the United Nations Security Council to bomb Serbia and Kosovo. Afro-communitarians would not be too concerned with the legality of the intervention and thus this chapter engages with the justification for the Alliance’s aerial strikes to counter violence from the Yugoslav forces targeting Kosovar Albanians. It then assesses whether the intervention resulted in a more harmonious state of affairs.