NY Times: Partition best solution

NY Times: Partition best solution

“But there’s an alternative, if only the international community would consider it: partition. Flexibility on borders could make a fully independent Kosovo easier to govern, provide more protection for minorities and make a negotiated deal attainable. Partition is possible, and possibly the right thing to do”, Waters writes.

Yet, the status proposal about to be made public “offers a half-state on the whole territory”, where, according to Waters, “Kosovo will get most of the powers of a sovereign state without full independence, and with no revision of its borders.”

“Partition could break the negotiating deadlock. The Albanian leadership in Priština might give up the Serb-populated north in exchange for immediate recognition and streamlined governance without international supervision.”

“And Serbia might relax its resistance to Kosovo’s independence if it could retain the northern bit — which would ease international approval, since Russia has vowed to veto any plan that Serbia doesn’t accept”, argues Waters.

“There is nothing magic or moral about Kosovo’s borders. They are an artifact of Tito’s Yugoslavia, and they never corresponded to ethnicity or contributed to social peace. If borders fail to ensure security or promote welfare, they should be changed. That’s why we favored separating Kosovo from Serbia in the first place. That is a partition, too. So why is severing a smaller part of Serbia inherently wrong?”, concludes Waters.