Coffee will be served at 3:30pm. The event will start at 4:00pm.
Title
Unlikely Friends: The Clinton Administration and Kosovo
Abstract
This paper examines the diplomatic relations between the United States and Kosovar political leaders during the 1990s, culminating with NATO’s 1999 intervention in Kosovo. The case sheds light on the dynamics between small and large states and how these dynamics influence the outcome of military interventions, particularly in civil wars. Rather than good relations with Kosovar leaders being something the Clinton Administration could take for granted, a close examination reveals these relations were fraught. Yes, they held shared interests, but they also worked towards incompatible end states. That the Kosovar delegations would accept the American position at the Rambouillet talks in early 1999, which advocated for Kosovo autonomy not independence, was far from a foregone conclusion. Though often portrayed as passive victims needing rescue by NATO, for over a decade Kosovar leaders sought to gain independence from Serbia through peaceful protest, international lobbying, and insurgency.
Discussant to provide commentary is Charles Laubach, The Ohio State University.
Speaker
Mary Elizabeth Walters is an Assistant Professor of Military and Security Studies in the West Space Scholars program at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Walters received both her MA and PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her book project, Hospitality is the Law of the Mountains: The 1999 Kosovo War, examines how Albanians – motivated by the Albanian concept of hospitality – took strangers into their homes and communities and changed the course of the refugee crisis. She is also working on an oral history project exploring Operation Allies Welcome, the U.S. military support for the evacuation and resettlement of Afghans spanning 2021-2022. Before joining Space Force PME, Walters was an assistant professor at the Air Command and Staff College and Kansas State University.
About the International History Seminar
If you are interested in attending this semester’s events and joining the International History Seminar, please send an email confirming your interest to the Hayes Chair Graduate Research Associate, Ian Gammon, at hayeschairgra@osu.edu, and you will be included on the mailing list going forward. Materials will only be pre-circulated to people on the mailing list.