TENSIONS AND INTERPLAY BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL ACTORS IN PEACEBUILDING. Case study and grassroots subjects’ perspectives on the situation in Kosovo

Abstract

The international community intervened in Kosovo in 1999 to put an end to the devastating conflict. Since then the Kosovar population has lived under the United Nations’ administration, went through a partially recognized independence process in 2008, and experienced violent episodes between the different local communities but also with the international interveners. Nowadays, Kosovo is struggling with a complicated state building and slow economic development while international organizations are still present in the field. This case study examines the tensions between local and global actors during the peacebuilding missions in Kosovo. It seeks to discover how those tensions and their consequences are understood by local grassroots subjects and international peacebuilders. Through protests and local resistance, the Kosovar population showed its discontent towards the international interveners’ measures and actions. The goal of this study is to give a voice to local grassroots actors, who seem left out of the liberal Western organizations’ agendas.