ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the roots of the conflict and the lead up to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization decision to intervene militarily by means of an air campaign against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It focuses on the actual development of the air campaign in its middle stage. The chapter assesses the conflict in the context of new wars and new humanitarianism analyzing consecutively the case for a new' war and the case for a 'new humanitarianism' in practice. It demonstrates how the Kosovo crisis became an emblematic example of new wars. Kosovo is an area situated in Southern Serbia with a mixed population the majority of whom are ethnic Albanians. Kosovo is vital both to Serbia's national identity, representing the 'Serbian Jerusalem', as well as its national interest, reflecting Serbian geo-political concerns about the creation of a 'Greater Albania'.
