ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the background for the evaluation of EU police reform in Kosovo. It details the historical background to the international presence in Kosovo, showing that EULEX gained a lot of goodwill and legitimacy from being perceived as better than its predecessor, UNMIK. The analysis of the collective legitimacy perception of the Kosovan population was expected to provide important yardstick for the assessment of the police’s legitimacy perceptions in the following two chapters. As the two following chapters show, however, the ethnic divisions apparent in Kosovo’s population are not mirrored in the police.
