Kosovo is a tiny land-locked nation located in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula in Eastern Europe. Before the 1990s, few people outside the immediate area had ever even heard of Kosovo. Then, in 1998, war began, and Kosovo moved to the center of the international stage. For many people, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 had been expected to reduce the possibility of war, particularly in Europe. Instead, in the Balkans, it led to a series of conflicts based on simmering tensions that had been suppressed under Soviet control. Suddenly, the name of Kosovo was widely known and became identified with a savage war based on religious and ethnic divisions.
Even today, more than 25 years later, the complex roots and causes of this war and its ultimate impact are not widely understood, and it is often forgotten that international troops remain in Kosovo in an effort to maintain the fragile peace. This book seeks to explain the background to the creation of Kosovo, the tensions that existed with neighboring states, and the origin, history, and aftermath of the war itself. This is the story of the Kosovo War.
