Humphrey Hawksley. “Kosovo’s Independence Could Mean a New Conflict”. YaleGlobal. November 5, 2007 – “While Kosovo was a defining issue of post-Cold War leadership, there is now a gaping silence from all global powers – except Russia – as to an acceptable way forward. Kosovo’s 2 million citizens interpret this as a signal that the United States and much of Europe would support its independence.
Kosovo, therefore, is in danger of falling victim to the type of opaque diplomacy that has been behind some of the gravest global conflicts. One of the more recent is Saddam Hussein’s belief that the US would not object to Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Another is the initial tepid US reaction to the northern Iraq–based Kurdish insurgency against Turkey, leading to the current crisis, in which Turkish and US troops could face each other from opposite sides of a frontline.”