The Independent International Commission on Kosovo prepared a report on Kosovo in 2000; the link below displays the executive summary. The commission’s mission statement said,

“The Independent International Commission on Kosovo will examine key developments prior to, during and after the Kosovo war, including systematic violations of human rights in the region. The Commission will present a detailed, objective analysis of the options that were available to the international community to cope with the crisis. It will focus on the origins of the Kosovo crisis, the diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, the role of the United Nations and Nato's decision to intervene militarily. It will examine the resulting refugee crisis including the responses of the international community to resolve the crisis. The effect of the conflict on regional and other states will also be examined. Furthermore, the Commission will assess the role of humanitarian workers, NGOs and the media during the Kosovo war. Finally, the Commission will identify the norms of international law and diplomacy brought to the fore by the Kosovo war and the adequacy of present norms and institutions in preventing or responding to comparable crises in the future.”

Today's arrest of Radko Mladic, accused mastermind of the slaughter at Srebrenica, will help clear the way for Serbia's accession to the European Union and is a step forward for the region, says CFR's Charles Kupchan.

Session Two of a Council on Foreign Relations Symposium on International Law and Justice: Evolving Norms and U.S. Responses.

Interview: CFR's Charles A. Kupchan says recognizing Kosovo as independent is the best pragmatic solution from a list of bad options.

Listen to CFR Senior Fellow Stephen Sestanovich discuss the upcoming presidential elections in Russia and the recent declaration of independence by Kosovo.

Washington’s representative to talks on Kosovo, Frank G. Wisner, says Serbia will never recognize an independent Kosovo and that Russia’s role has been “unbelievably regrettable.”

Political land mines loom beyond Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia.

Two policy experts discuss potential scenarios that could play out if Kosovo declares independence and the United States honors its national sovereignty.

Charles A. Kupchan, CFR’s top Europe expert, says with Kosovo on the cusp of announcing independence, he finds the continued Russian opposition “perplexing.”

Four speakers discuss the consequences of an independent Kosovo.

CFR Senior Fellow Charles Kupchan discusses implications of Kosovo's anticipated declaration of independence despite Russia's opposition.

Kosovo is expected to declare independence within the next month. Russia says this could trigger instability in other nearby breakaway regions.

Richard C. Holbrooke, the architect of the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnia war, says Russia’s uncooperative attitude in Kosovo combined with western inaction could spark renewed conflict.

Last summer, UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari was tasked by the Security Council with resolving the question of Kosovo's future status, with support from U.S. and European Union envoys. As the process draws to a close, this United States Institute of Peace briefing discusses potential drivers of conflict in Kosovo during the status decision and in the period thereafter.

A top U.S. State Department official on Balkan policy says Serbia must begin participating in final talks over the conditional independence of Kosovo or face increased isolation from Europe.

A UN envoy is proposing phased independence for Kosovo, nearly eight years after Belgrade’s dominion over the province ended.

Nationalists won Serbia’s general elections but may not have pulled in enough votes to form a government. Kosovo's final status and the stability of a beleaguered corner of southeastern Europe remain at stake.

This report from USIP gives details of a public discussion in November 2006 of the Kosovo Internal Security Sector Review (ISSR). The ISSR, conducted by the United Nations Development Program, was a non-traditional approach to security sector review. The program evaluated Kosovo's security situation from the inside out, looking at the threat of insecurity with the help and participation of the citizens of Kosovo. With talks on the future status of Kosovo well underway, the international community must prioritize security sector reform, says USIP. Stability in the region will hinge on Kosovo's ability to maintain security for all its citizens. Security will be the key to economic development, civic responsibility, and productive relations both among Kosovo's citizens and between Kosovo and its neighbors in the Balkans.

This link is to a report from the United States Institute for Peace’s report on ethnic conflict in Kosovo. The report argues that the international community's military and financial investments in the Balkans over the past fifteen years have led to substantial improvements in most of the territories of the former Yugoslavia, but that this progress will be put at risk if talks on Kosovo's status lead to de facto ethnoterritorial separation, with Serbs governed on their own territory by Belgrade. Partition could trigger another wave of violence, mass displacement of civilians, and instability in multiethnic states of the region.