Kosovo – the negotiations

Kosovo – the negotiations, the north and the police | TransConflict | Transform, Transcend, Translate – TransConflict Serbia.

By Gerard Gallucci

Whilst Belgrade shows a willingness to compromise onspecific issues, Pristina remains wedded to a maximalist stance – particularly towards the north – that inhibits its scope for making concessions and has led to suggestions that regional stability could be threatened if the spectre of partition is raised.

The northern Serbs’ peaceful resistance to being incorporated into independent Kosovo has kept the issue of the north alive. Tadic was never eager to assist the northern Serbs but politically he had no choice but to appear supportive. Now, however, Belgrade clearly sees the north as both leverage and possibly a key part of what it might come away with from its “historic” compromise. Will the EU be able to make this work? Or will the Kosovo leadership be allowed to stonewall and threaten peace?

Paying the piper-AFJ

I think his argument is that an aerospace centric strategy will allows us to bridge this period of fiscal constraint; however he continues to argue that airpower will not resolve our national security challenges and that airpower is expensive.

 

Paying the piper

An aerospace-centric defense strategy makes fiscal sense

BY GENE MYERS Defense in an uncertain world is vital, but ensuring national security involves far more than military prowess. We now find ourselves asking how we satisfy two conflicting requirements: frugality and security. And I find myself having concerns and making recommendations I would not have even a year ago.

 

I will start this discussion with the suggestion that we avoid putting ground forces in harm’s way if at all possible, as I think President Obama is trying hard to do in Libya, and that, when we must act, we maximize the use of our air power — Air Force, Navy, Army and Marine Corps. We are the world’s pre-eminent aerospace power. It’s our asymmetric advantage. Let’s use it.

via Armed Forces Journal

UNDP Kosovo – News – Public Pulse Report: First Edition

The latest Public Pulse Poll results show a general decline in people’s satisfaction with the work of Kosovo’s key executive, legislative, and judicial institutions.About 72% of respondents of all ethnicities seem to be either dissatisfied with the economic direction in which Kosovo is headed. About 72% of Kosovans seem ready and willing to join public protests organized due to economic reasons as opposed 59% of them who would do the same for political reasons.  According to the survey data, Kosovans identify unemployment 30% and poverty 29% as the two top paramount problems that Kosovo faces. The third paramount problem that Kosovo faces is corruption 11%.

via UNDP Kosovo – News – Public Pulse Report: First Edition.

ForeignAssistance.gov: Kosovo

Kosovo’s success as an independent, multiethnic, and democratic state is critical to security and stability in the Balkans, a region whose peaceful development is vital to the United States’ broader strategic goal of building a Europe whole, free, and at peace. With this in mind, five priorities guide U.S. assistance: building the institutions of Kosovo’s government and society, ensuring that Kosovo remains the home of all its diverse peoples and that they all join in the process of building Europe’s newest democratic country, furthering the development of the country’s economy so that all its citizens can enjoy the benefits of prosperity, ensuring that society and government are firmly grounded in the rule of law, and cementing progress in all these areas through the realization of Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic future. This assistance will be implemented by a number of U.S. agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Departments of State, Defense, and the Treasury.

via ForeignAssistance.gov.

America Addicted to War? Hardly | Atlantic Council

By Derek S. Reveron
To be sure, U.S. military interventions are violent, but they are quickly followed by a more intense effort to provide humanitarian relief, promote security, and develop indigenous militaries. Critics of U.S. military intervention fail to take into account that the United States does not invade countries to take territory or install puppet regimes. Rather, the United States with its allies set in place, no matter how flawed, democratic processes to allow self-determination. And it aids new (e.g. Kosovo), struggling (e.g. Mexico), or transforming states (e.g. Georgia) with security and development assistance programs. Relatively unlimited, the United States provides security assistance to about 150 countries. As I wrote in Exporting Security, these efforts are driven both by a liberal ideal of making the world better, but also an instrumental understanding that allies expect it. By doing so, the United States seeks to improve its international image, strengthen the state sovereignty system by training and equipping partners’ security forces, prevent localized violence from escalating into regional crises, and protect U.S. national security by addressing underlying conditions.

via America Addicted to War? Hardly | Atlantic Council.

BOOKS ON KOSOVO

The Best Books on Kosovo

Technology: Kosovo aims to become ‘India of Europe’ | Business and Economy

Technology: Kosovo aims to become ‘India of Europe’ | Business and Economy.

 

Kosovo, the young Balkans nation, is on the right path to become “India of Europe” in terms of information technology development and customer service call center for Europe, especially the German speaking states.

In Kosovo, currently are operating 28 companies as call centers, while the trend of opening of these businesses is growing. In these companies have over 600 employees, whose average age ranges 18-25 years.

These companies provide services to the field of Telemarketing, customer service, billing and account maintenance and technical support.

Vjollca Cavolli, executive director of the Association for Information and Communication Technologies in Kosovo said that Kosovo has the potential and capacity to provide services to call for European countries, in particular the German states.

The number of Kosovars who speak the German language is the highest in the Balkans.