UN involvement in Kosovo: a path-dependent process?

Abstract

The following master’s thesis studies the role of the United Nations (UN) in the process towards Kosovo’s independence. The aim of the study is to verify weather the UN engagement in Kosovo can be described as a path-dependent process. In doing so the thesis places itself into the general framework of new institutionalism, historical institutionalism in particular, that brought the concept of path-dependence into political science. As the case of UN involvement in Kosovo is a unique case, a single case study method, process tracing, is chosen as the methodological approach to conduct the study. The research relies on secondary textual data such as reports, resolutions and other documents of the UN, reports of non-governmental organizations present in the region and writing of other scholars. Based on these sources the process of UN engagement in Kosovo is reconstructed analyzing the conditions that led to each decision and the impact these decisions had on the future course of events to decide weather or not the UN engagement in Kosovo can be described as a path-dependent process.