How Germany Paved the Way to the Kosovo War 1998-1999

By Matthias Küntzel (in 2000). Contribution to the 2nd International Hearing of the European Tribunal concerning NATO’s war against Yugoslavia. Hamburg, April 16, 2000 [...]

Global Politics 2019-01-08 22 min read

In 1991, a delegation of the German Bundestag visited Kosovo for the first time in order to talk with Kosovo Albanian nationalist leaders. This prompted – as early as 1991! – the warning by a senior member of the Yugoslavian parliament that “the British and the Germans would create a common intervention force with 70,000 soldiers in order to intervene in Kosovo.” [2] Indeed an early and accurate prophecy! So what about Germany’s role in preparing for the Kosovo war?

There were and there are strategic differences between German and the US policies about how to retain or enhance hegemony. “As a wealthy status quo power, the United States has an interest in