ABSTRACT
The United States, led by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, persuasively argued that only President Milosevic could deliver an agreement on Kosovo. The limited aim of an autonomous, but not independent, Kosovo—with its own law-courts, but without its own army or Foreign Ministry—had a series of very clear and specific implications for the means by which NATO was to fight the war. The aim of the war was not an independent Kosovo, or the overthrow of Milosevic, the man now routinely referred to as the Butcher of the Balkans, the new Hitler, and a genocidal war criminal. Milosevic's failure to behave according to plan has caused a rapid reappraisal of NATO's war aims. The aim of an independent Kosovo is opposed by some NATO members, and does not have US backing. The hope is that the bombing, if it is intense enough, will force Milosevic to turn to the Russians, empowering them to negotiate a settlement with NATO.
