ABSTRACT
Nato's war over Kosovo caused controversy internationally. To simplify the arguments, supporters of NATO's intervention maintain that it was a humanitarian war undertaken to stop an 'evil dictator' (Milosevic) from committing acts of 'genocide' and to prevent a potential 'spillover' effect. Tony Blair, in a speech entitled 'Doctrine of the international community', pursued some of these lines of argument. As he stated:
Opponents assert that the war was not so much about safeguarding the human lives of oppressed people but rather was based on different factors: geostrategic aims, a desire to demonstrate the relevance of the Western Alliance and to re-affirm the US leading role in Europe and worldwide. They challenge the idea that what was happening in Kosovo prior to the launch of NATO's air strikes against FRY/Serbia could be defined as an act of orchestrated genocide.1
