It has been said that a camel is a horse designed by committee and Kosovo is just such a beast.

A social experiment in state-building, this breakaway Serbian province had been administered by the United Nations since 1999 when a NATO-imposed ceasefire suspended hostilities between remnants of the former Yugoslavia.

If ever there existed an opportunity for the United Nations and the international community to prove their collective muster, Kosovo was it. Institutionally speaking, it was a relatively clean slate. UNMIK, as the UN Mission in Kosovo is known, didn’t need to go about the messy business of reforming the state. It had the opportunity to build one from scratch.

The models and best practices that Kosovo’s supporters (including the UN, US and EU) have been preaching unremittingly for decades should have served as the perfect recipe for success, while billions of dollars in donations and grants provided a more than adequate means to an end.

But Kosovo seems to have become a victim of too many cooks in the kitchen. For 8 years and running, the streets have been swarming international advisors and so-called experts tripping over themselves to prove that they know how to build the perfect society. Never before had so many international organizations and missions been present in one place. Never before had so many bureaucracies been stepping on one another’s toes.

Under the armed protection of the KFOR, the EU, OSCE, US, EAR, IMF, IFC, and an endless line of international institutions converged to create a new state, converting Kosovo into a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms. Predictably, the outcome was another acronym, the PISG, the provisional institutions for self-governance which had the appearance of a working government, but which actually was nothing more than a mirage. Through its SRSG (Special Representative of the Secretary General), the UN maintained dictatorial control over all government decisions and activities, regularly ignoring the will of the people expressed through their own duly elected official.

And so now, as of February 17, 2008, Kosovo is a free and sovereign state, at long last unshackled from both Serbia and the UN. Should it thrive and prosper, then the countries and institutions that supported its independence should be congratulated. It would be vindication of their efforts and policies and a testament to their formula for state-building.

On the other hand, should it become a failed state, characterized by rampant corruption, petty retribution and economic stagnation; then the blame must also fall on those countries and institutions which built Kosovo. In many respects, Kosovo is a litmus test for the neoconservative, laissez-faire state-structure which the US, EU and UN have been championing over the last two decades.

Hopefully, Kosovo will prosper and become a viable state. It would be the cruelest twist of fate to see it fail as a consequence of its own independence.

Postscript: February 19, 2008

Despite the unilateral declaration of independence on February 17, 2008, one of Kosovo’s first acts as a sovereign nation was to send its 2008 budget –which was duly approved by the Kosovar Parliament- to the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) of the UN for his approval and amendment. Despite its independence, Kosovo continues to act as a dependent of the United Nations. Apparently, old habits die hard. The questions d’ jour is whether the SRSG has the legal authority to sign or amend the budget and why the Kosovar government would subject their budget to external approval. What does independence mean if Kosovo refuses to act as an independent nation (and to what extent does foreign intervention in Kosovo’s governance provide the upstart nation-state with a convenient excuse should things go awry)?

Since all the government's money comes from oversea donors, it's only natural that UN should have a say into how they would be squandered spent. As opium growing is illegal, the government does not get tax revenue from the only robust sector of the economy.

East Timor as an example of 'fail state' created by the UN, and they have the benefit being ruled by a leader who is not a murderous criminal. It'll be hard to maintain an economy when you don't have any electricity after Serbia cut off transmission.

Serbia did not, and has not, cut off energy transmission. That is false. KEK (the Kosovo Energy Company) fulfilled PM Thaci's word and kept electricity running without interuption throughout the independence celebrations. Since then, the only power outages have been "normal", as a consequence of Kosovo's dilapidated energy Units B1 and A5 going off-line for technical reasons. The Serbs have not responded with energy cuts and trade continues to be brisk. There is no embargo, either.

Never before had so many international organizations and missions been present in one place. Never before had so many bureaucracies been stepping on one another’s toes.

Mac: This is a huge claim. I would have guessed post Katrina New Orleans.

I'm presently sitting in Pristina, working for one of these international organizations and there is consensus here that this is the LARGEST collection of international organizations in one place, working on one project, ever. Every decision, every effort, must be negotiated by all the international organizations before implementation and as such, when one proposes a "cat", by the time negotiations with the IFIs, US, EU, EAR, etc., are finished, Kosovo gets a "dog". I'm not exaggerating when I say that experts and institutions are tripping over themselves (and petty bureaucratic infighting is the norm as the institutions have to "justify" their budgets).

As for post-Katrina New Orleans, most of the agencies there were US, not international. The NGO's, i.e. Red Cross, etc., worked within their congressional mandates and in accordance with pre-existing rules of engagement (there are pre-standing rules of liaison between these institutions). In Kosovo, this is a free-for-all of confusion and conflicting madates. It's a mess. Let's hope the new "independent" Kosovo will take control of this sooner, rather than later (but it's not likely when the US office has place some very "strong-willed" individuals here who would not know subtlety or diplomacy if it hit them in the arse).

Hey, great, so you are in Pristina now. Can you post some photos of the city? It used to be 150.000 citizens in 99, now I've heard around 500.000 - how do people live there today?