ABSTRACT
Western armed forces spent much of the 1990s disengaging themselves from the mental strait-jacket of peace-keeping doctrine and the thrall of writers who insisted on its rigid separation from other military operations. 1 Despite resistance to change, both the military contributors and the humanitarian organisations have gradually adapted themselves to a new strategic era. International responses have developed under pressure from a young field executive at the front lines of an altered conflict environment. By the end of the 1990s, Kosovo could be regarded as a benchmark in this development. Although the intervention in Kosovo was not a trouble-free operation, it demonstrated a degree of acceptance of the use of military force that would have been unimaginable at the beginning of the decade. It also represented a way of coping with stabilisation and a tacit framework for civil–military cooperation. 2
