Effectiveness, Legitimacy, and the Use of Force in Modern Wars: The Relentless Battle for Hearts and Minds in NATO’s War over Kosovo: Globale Gesellschaft und internationale Beziehungen

Contemporary War, Clausewitz, and Compound Legitimacy: A Theoretical Framework - Relevance of the Dissertation - The Legal Bases of OAF - NATO's Legal-Political Justifications - Political Grounds - Assumptions and Strategic Choices - Performance Failures and their Effects on Allied and Military Support u.a.

Following her studies at The Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Oxford University, Dr. Stephanie Wilson served as senior lecturer for Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK. She then held a research fellowship at Harvard University (Kennedy School of Government) before joining the Bundeswehr Transformation Center (BTC) for the German Armed Forces.

This study deals with one of the most fundamental problems regarding the use of force – the relation between law and power. More concretely, can illegal humanitarian wars be legitimized, or does a lack of legality doom any chance for legitimation? And why is legitimacy so important for the successful use of force? These questions are tackled by using the legitimization of NATO’s contentious humanitarian war over Kosovo in 1999 as a comprehensive case-study. Thus, this study analyzes how the Atlantic Alliance sought to wage a successful and, at the same time, legitimate war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) without prior authorization of main source of international legitimacy, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The Relentless Battle for Hearts and Minds in NATO’s War over Kosovo