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  • Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency
  • Charles R. Shrader
Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency. By Henry H. Perritt, Jr. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-252-03342-1. Photographs. Map. List of acronyms and organization names. List of key individuals. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 230. $40.00 (hb).

The title of this book is somewhat misleading in that the author, Professor Henry H. Perritt, Jr., offers not only a detailed overview of the origins, leaders, recruitment, organization, financing, training, logistics, strategy, tactics, and operations of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) but also clearly describes in some detail the political, economic, and social context in which the KLA was created and evolved. Thus, the reader obtains not only a good understanding of a twenty-first century insurgent army, but also of both the international and regional factors that influence modern nationalist insurgencies.

Professor Perritt offers what is probably as detailed an account of the KLA as is possible. Importantly, he notes that the KLA did not spring forth fully grown and mature in all its aspects. He describes well the fragmented organization, personal rivalries, spotty communications, poor coordination, inadequate training, and minimal logistical support that characterized the KLA, and the impact of such factors on KLA operational doctrines and methods.

I found particularly informative Professor Perritt's assessment of the effects of the prosecution of Kosovar freedom fighters by the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). His discussion should awaken most readers to the very negative impact that the ICTY has had on the development of stable, viable nation states from the ruins of Tito's Yugoslavia. He also confirms the view that the highly politicized decisions of the ICTY dilute the guilt of the real aggressor in the recent Balkan conflicts (the Serbs) by indicting "an equal number" of those Croats, Bosniaks, and Kosovars who resisted aggression and fought to free their countries from Serbian oppression. Professor Perritt also addresses the difficulties of applying the international legal doctrine of "command responsibility" to insurgent armies in which commanders are able to exercise only the most rudimentary control over illtrained forces only nominally under their command. As Professor Perritt suggests, there is indeed a need to rethink international criminal law doctrines, particularly as they relate to command responsibility. [End Page 1032]

Professor Perritt is well qualified to undertake a study of the KLA. He holds degrees in engineering, management, and law; was dean of the University of Chicago's Kent School of Law (1997–2002); and now directs the school's Program in Financial Services Law. He has been particularly active in promoting the Internet as a means of informing people about, and assisting with, the development of democratic societies in the former Yugoslavia. He has practical first-hand knowledge of the people and events that he writes about and appears to have interviewed most of the principal actors in the story, at least on the Kosovar side. Consequently, he is able combine overviews of the international political and diplomatic situation with anecdotal evidence of the participants in a most skillful manner.

This small book provides a primer on the Kosovo liberation movement, the leaders of the movement, how the insurgent forces were organized and supported, the impact of NATO and the ICTY on the region, and the nature of modern nationalist insurgencies. It is highly recommended for readers interested the future of armed conflict, for, as Professor Perritt proclaims, the KLA may well be a paradigm of how nationalist insurgencies will be fought in the twenty-first century. [End Page 1033]

Charles R. Shrader
Carlisle, Pennsylvania

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