ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the international administrations of Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor represent some of the boldest experiments in the management and settlement of intra-state conflict ever attempted by the United Nations and other third parties. The prospect of defeat by the Croatian Army no doubt induced the Croatian Serbs to work with international authorities in Eastern Slavonia, however begrudgingly, just as actual defeat had done in the cases of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Third-party states are sometimes in a position to help mould the conditions under which international authorities will function as administrators: for instance, by allowing or even abetting one side to gain the strategic advantage in a conflict. International administration is the Rolls-Royce of conflict-management strategies, and it is doubtful that there will be the political will to repeat the experience very often.