A legacy of conflict: Kosovo, Russia, and the West

Abstract

NATO’s 1999 Kosovo campaign was a pivotal moment in Russia’s worldview and its post–Cold War evolution, prompting an enduring period of estrangement and alienation from the West. It has had a profound and lasting impact on Russian policy and strategic thought vis-à-vis the international system and the use of force, as well as the balance of power amongst different sections of the country’s foreign policy elite. This article focuses on the enduring consequences of NATO’s intervention for relations between Russia and the West, as well as on how the operation has shaped Russian strategic thought and its views on the character of conflict in the twenty-first century. It explores three themes that emerged in the wake of Operation Allied Force: questions over European security, specifically how it is provided and by whom, as well as Russia’s role; challenges to the existing liberal international order and the norms underpinning it; and the evolution of Russian military thought and defense policy post-1999.