Civil-Military Relations in Peacebuilding: A Case Study of Kosovo

Kosovo has become a unique case of trans-Atlantic peacebuilding efforts, a nascent sovereign state that remains under the legal protectorate of the United Nations with a diminishing contingent of international peacekeepers and peacebuilders. The intervention, initially aimed at stemming ethnic cleansing, is now designed to prevent the resumption of violence and to support establishing a durable and sustainable peace. With the current guarantor of peace an international intervention, this research asks whether the emerging contract between the government, its armed forces, and society, one reflecting a diminishing international presence and embryonic Kosovar institutions, capable of sustaining security guarantees to allow peacebuilding to take hold? This project utilized a narrative based program to uncovering an understanding of Kosovo’s reveal the values, interests, and aspirations and an emerging civil-military relations framework in the context of the society’s collective experience. This research investigates the emerging civil-military relations framework and discovers that an overwhelming emphasis on NATO accessions has stifled the development of dynamic and representative social contracts between the government, its armed forces, and its citizens.