View article

In the spring of 1999, after escalating tensions in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, NATO went to war against Serbia. This Western intervention was the object of heated debate in various constituencies around the world: within Yugoslavia, Kosovo's majority Albanian population rejoiced in their possible liberation from Serbian oppression, while Serbs questioned the legality of international involvement within a sovereign state. In Europe and America, leftist critics warned of US imperialism, while in China mass protests were sparked when NATO bombs destroyed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Closer to the combat zone, citizens of other southeast European countries watched uneasily. The break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s had generated bloody conflict in Croatia and Bosnia, where successor states vied to control territory and resources. It had also prompted dispute in the symbolic realm, as Greece …