Did Nonviolent Resistance Fail in Kosovo?

Aleksandar Marsavelski, Furtuna Sheremeti, John Braithwaite

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A standard narrative is that nonviolence failed in Kosovo: the Milosevic regime was ended by a NATO bombing campaign. This essay exposes errors in this narrative. Kosovo's nonviolent resistance successfully unified the masses against the regime with a distinctive innovation of building solidarity by reducing violence. In particular, it reduced murders in blood feuds. Kosovo emerged from war with comparatively low violence for a post-conflict society burdened with organized crime. We contrast Kosovo with societies where more people were killed by criminal violence after peace agreements than in wartime. Reconciling blood feuds as part of Kosovo's nonviolent campaign for freedom contributed to this accomplishment. Nonviolent resistance campaigns can be evaluated through a criminological lens whereby averting war is just one means to reducing death rates from intentional violence.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)218-236
    Number of pages19
    JournalBritish Journal of Criminology
    Volume58
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2018

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