ABSTRACT
This section explores the reasons why Kosovo’s first attempt to secede in 1991 failed. This first attempt stands in sharp contrast to the subsequent unilateral secession of 2008 which led to the creation of a still contested, but gradually more and more consolidated state. Nevertheless, while much of the literature has focused on the 2008 declaration of independence and its possible global implications, little has been written on the first attempt for independence in 1991 and the reasons why it failed. In the 1990s both politicians and scholars had been absorbed by the Yugoslav wars and had put Kosovo aside as an issue of minor importance. Although Kosovo’s demands were sometimes mentioned in short chapters in lengthy books studying the Yugoslav saga, these analyses focused predominantly on the nature of those demands and on their potentially explosive character, while a considerable amount of literature has also been written on the Kosovo war of 1999. This chapter seeks to fill this gap by focusing on explaining why Kosovo’s first attempt to secede failed to create an independent state and examines possible reasons for this failure.
