Kosovo Crossing: The Reality of American Intervention in the Balkans

I found Fromkin's writing style to be unorganized. He has a lot of information to give (not all of which is dependable, by the way), but he skips around from the 20th century to the Middle Ages to all the time periods in-between, and quite frankly, I found it a bit hard to follow at times.
Fromkin is very confident about his information, and seems to think he's a definitive source on the subject. The book left me with a feeling that I was learning from an expert in Balkan politics--but beware. As a soldier stationed in the Balkans I can tell you, that if you're basing your knowledge of this region off of this book--or any one book--you've only really scratched the surface.

I have read many similar books before.

The book itself has very little to do with Kososvo at all. Tito for example gets less then a page. The way he ruled maybe a line. That he ruled by killing over a million Yugoslavians is never even mentioned.

It is a study basically of the history of US foreign policy. Nothing very orginal or good either. Just some sweeping generalisations that would suggest that US foreign policy is purely a produce of the ideals of the current US president.

Kosovo Crossing is a lucid presentation of the dilemmas in US policy towards Europe during the last century and the lessons we may draw from that historical experience in the new millennium. Fromkin's writing style is engaging, accessible to the generalist, and yet provocative for those with a deeper understanding of 1) Balkan politics and 2) the cycles of American history and their impact on the nation's foreign policy. The crux of the matter in this narrative is the tension between "power" and "goodness" and the inherent difficulties in defining these two concepts. Fromkin grapples with the realist and idealist themes in America's vision of the world and the traits in its own character as a nation that shape this vision. If America should intervene abroad only in defense of its vital interests, the classical realist argument, how should those interests be reconciled with a commitment to humanitarian imperatives? Given the demands of a long-term presence in southeast Europe, how does America come to terms with a historical legacy that sought to distance the country from the Continent's reliance on the balance of power as policy? Fromkin's explanation of the Clinton administration's reliance on air power to pressure a peace in Kosovo rightly questions the compatibility of this option with the long-term goal of stability in the Balkans. The larger issues this analysis raises involve the need for 1) a focus on conflict prevention capabilities in US policy planning and 2) the impact of the Kosovo campaign on the evolution of a European identity. This identity emphasizes peacekeeping objectives in areas where the Americans may be reluctant to engage. In sum, Kosovo Crossing serves as a useful complement to other more in-depth analyses of Balkan politics. Fromkin highlights the reasons why the US may be limited, by domestic and international constraints, in its ability to wage future wars. His conclusion leaves open the cultural dilemma of maintaining an international presence in the Balkans and whether that presence, in fact, may ensure the peace.

Kososvo Crossing was a cursory and listless stroll throughthree thousand years of history. The two hundred and two pagesrestrict the depth and understanding of the topics brushed upon. The book lists historical events and assumes political and moral positions with minimal substantiation. The position that the "population deportations of 1913-23, and in the population deportations in Eastern and Central Europe ordained by the Allies after WWII...These were tragedies on a massive scale: in terms of numbers, greater than Kosovo...Yet the point is it worked. It settled the issue." (pg. 190), along with " ...the Serbs would have settled the Kosovo issue, by ethnic cleansing." ( ibid.) betrays a dangerous simplicity that permeates the book.

This book argues that the foreign policy of the United States should be based on Realpolitic, and that the policies of the Wilson and Clinton administrations are misguided or at best selective, humanitarian attempts that were and will ultimately prove detrimental to U.S. interests. While general readers may find this book very readable, and the author mentions that widespread brutalities occurred during the wars in the former Yugoslavia, he does not fully represent or comprehensively counter, arguments supporting the Balkan policies of the Clinton administration and U.S. intervention. Furthermore, the lack of important details in this book, may suggest oversimplification to readers with familiarity on Balkan subjects.