Twenty Years on, Kosovo Remains Unfinished Business

NATO started bombing the next afternoon, on March 24, 1999. The air campaign lasted 78 days until Milosevic surrendered. I was proud of America for going to war to stop the genocide in Kosovo.

This week is the 20-year anniversary of NATO's intervention. Kosovo is free and independent. That can't be reversed.

However, only 116 countries have recognised Kosovo. When Kosovo declared independence in 2008, Serbia launched a diplomatic campaign to impede Kosovo's international recognition. It still refuses to accept that Kosovo was lost as a result of Milosevic's crimes.

A giant Kosovo flag on the facade of Kosovo government building during preparations for the tenth anniversary of Kosovo's independence declaration, 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/PETRIT PRENAJ.

Aleksandar Vucic, Milosevic's chief propagandist and Serbia's current president, is in denial. He insists that Kosovo is still a province of Serbia.

The Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue was launched in 2011. It was promising at first. However, not much was accomplished beyond agreements on license plates, area codes, and border management. Other agreements were stonewalled by Serbia.

The dialogue became a fiasco. The two sides have not even agreed on the meaning of 'normalisation'. Serbia refers to the government of Kosovo as the "provisional authorities of Kosovo and Metohija".

While Serbian officials feign amity at the table in Brussels, they work to undermine Kosovo's efforts to gain greater global recognition. Supported by Russia, Serbia actively discourages countries to establish relations with Kosovo.

It campaigns against Kosovo's membership in international organisations such as UNESCO and INTERPOL. It even tries to persuade countries that have recognised Kosovo to...