Kosovo Crossing: The Reality of American Intervention in the Balkans

I have just finished historian David Fromkin's Kosovo Crossing: The Reality of American Intervention in the Balkans. I've long been interested in Balkan history, particularly since reading Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon in 1996. So, I was pleased when this book began with a focus on West's book, her time in Yugoslavia before World War II, and the genuine attachment others who study and/or love this region have for her work and thoughts on the Balkans. Quoting Robert D. Kaplan, author of another well-known work on the region, Balkan Ghosts, Fromkin illustrates the influence West's work has had on writers following in her footsteps, when he writes that he would have rather lost his passport and his money than his copy of Black Lamb. While all of West's information and her work on the subject is no longer accepted today, Fromkin's respect for this book that has so influenced me attracted to me to his work, and kept me very engaged in the few days it took me to read this 196-page book, which is really an extended essay on the ways in which World War I shaped the twentieth century in Europe, and how President Woodrow Wilson's response to "the Great War" has continued to shape American foreign policy in that same time period. Copyrighted in 1999, this work does not report a resolution on Kosovo. (In the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the Serbs initiated ethnic cleansing techniques to rid the Kosovo province of its majority of ethnic Albanians - of 2,000,000 residents of the region, only 200,000 were not ethnic Albanians.) But by the end of the book, this seemed secondary to the points raised and argued by Fromkin, and the reality of the situation today supports Fromkin's thesis. (The region is still being administered by the United Nations, or that human rights organizations are calling for continuing protection.) In the line of this book, Kosovo (or Kosova, to its Albanian residents) is the latest iteration of Wilsonian foreign policy. The book begins with a retelling of West's experiences at Kosovo Polje (Field of the Blackbirds), at which she saw a sacrifice of a lamb by a father in thanks for the birth of his daughter. This place matters so much to the Serbs because it is the (mythical?) site of the 1389 decisive battle in which the Serbian leader, Tsar Lazar, bargained with heaven that he would lose the battle with the Ottomans and gain eternity in heaven. Such a sacrifice grated on West, who was looking in the late 1930s at another great war on the Continent. The lamb's sacrifice and Lazar's, whose personal aggrandizement for eternity left the Balkan peninsula submerged under Ottoman rule for nearly as long, was just wrong to West. She rejected the idea of sacrifice as necessary for good categorically. And West wondered, pondering Kosovo, why the people who were good were reluctant to use their power to effect good in the world, while those willing to use power, rarely had good intentions. She wondered why the right would not

The book is a thought provoking analysis of the difficulties of intervening in a country where ethnic and religious passions are involved. Although the analysis was pointed towards Kosovo, it applies equally well to Africa and most especially to Iraq. (Perhaps it should be assigned reading for the neo-cons). It would appear that the negative reviews were written by people who did not understand the book or who wanted the author to write a different book. In the light of the current situation in Iraq (and Sri Lanka and Israel/Palestine, etc.) I suggest that those reviewers might profit by rereading the book.

Kosovo Crossing is a lucid presentation of the dilemmas in US policy towards Europe during the last century and the lessons we may draw from that historical experience in the new millennium. Fromkin's writing style is engaging, accessible to the generalist, and yet provocative for those with a deeper understanding of 1) Balkan politics and 2) the cycles of American history and their impact on the nation's foreign policy. The crux of the matter in this narrative is the tension between "power" and "goodness" and the inherent difficulties in defining these two concepts. Fromkin grapples with the realist and idealist themes in America's vision of the world and the traits in its own character as a nation that shape this vision. If America should intervene abroad only in defense of its vital interests, the classical realist argument, how should those interests be reconciled with a commitment to humanitarian imperatives? Given the demands of a long-term presence in southeast Europe, how does America come to terms with a historical legacy that sought to distance the country from the Continent's reliance on the balance of power as policy? Fromkin's explanation of the Clinton administration's reliance on air power to pressure a peace in Kosovo rightly questions the compatibility of this option with the long-term goal of stability in the Balkans. The larger issues this analysis raises involve the need for 1) a focus on conflict prevention capabilities in US policy planning and 2) the impact of the Kosovo campaign on the evolution of a European identity. This identity emphasizes peacekeeping objectives in areas where the Americans may be reluctant to engage. In sum, Kosovo Crossing serves as a useful complement to other more in-depth analyses of Balkan politics. Fromkin highlights the reasons why the US may be limited, by domestic and international constraints, in its ability to wage future wars. His conclusion leaves open the cultural dilemma of maintaining an international presence in the Balkans and whether that presence, in fact, may ensure the peace.

Fromkin presents a very lucid portrayal of the vast history of the Balkans and its impact on contemporary political policies in the United States. He masterfully draws parallels between our involvement in Kosovo and our presence in Korea, Kuwait, Somalia, and other areas around the globe. Perhaps the most poignant point made by Fromkin is that too often we have failed to learn from foreign policy mistakes of the past. Indeed, these mistakes continue to haunt us today and frequently lead to continued poor decision making from our leaders. A must read for those interested in foreign policy and those who seek a deeper understanding of the turmoil in the Balkans.

Must reading for the student of International Affairs and American Foreign Policy who wants a sober and disciplined analysis. All Presidential candidates and their foreign policy advisors should read this book.