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Recommend Kosovo: almost ready to age out of UN foster care (Email)

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"Ambitious Experiment Leads Kosovo to a Crossroads: U.N. May Resolve Prrovince's Future," by Nicholas Wood, New York Times, 3 October 2005, p. A3.

The ambitious UN-led effort on Kosovo is not easily dismissed. After all, its strong focus on creating ground-floor security and political institutions fits most experts' definitions of what is need in any post-conflict nation-building effort. And isn't is amazing that no one seems to care anymore that our Balkans interventions of the 1990s essentially dismembered what used to be called Yugoslavia? I mean, we "fail" in Iraq if the Shiites and Kurds do well but the Sunni Triangle still burns, but somehow we succeed so much more in Yugoslavia while willfully breaking up the "republic"?

Still, there is plenty of sad stories to go around on Kosovo, where the UN is likewise guilty of acting like the social worker from hell, meaning the type who, once the claws are in you, the professional do-gooder refuses to leave, retarding the client's (or is it "victim"?) growth in the direction of caring for him- or herself. Fukuyama wrote on this in his excellent book, "State Building," a volume I use in BFA.

Well, despite such criticisms the UN is actually moving purposefully to aging Kosovo out of its long-term foster care, and in this process it may well set in motion even further dismemberment of what remains of the rump union headed by Serbia.

But here's where the UN went wrong in Kosovo much like we went wrong in Iraq (especially the Sunni portions), the developmental aid was largely wasted on showy institutional building that did little to put food in bellies or money in pockets--again, keeping the population somewhat retarded in its recovery curve.

Still, Kosovo was a decent attempt, in many ways the most ambitious nation-building attempt by foreign powers yet (not in size, but in reach, because we're talking only about $1.3 billion a year!). I mean, any success with that little money and that many peacekeeping boots on the ground has to serve as a stunning example of the opportunities missed in Iraq.

So we learn. We get better and smarter. We keep trying because we have no choice. Failed states are just bad for the business called globalization. Dealing with them is recognizing the military-market nexus in all its developmental complexity.

So we keep getting better because they keep getting worse.


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