At the end of 2005, the United Nations launched a process that, if successful, should determine the future status of Kosovo. However, this process, based in Vienna, has so far brought very limited results. The sides remain stuck in their irreconcilable pre-negotiation positions: the Kosovo Albanians want the full and complete independence of Kosovo from Serbia, and Belgrade invokes the internationally recognized Helsinki principles of the inviolability of state borders, asserting that the solution must lie within a formula of »more than autonomy but less than independence.« It is becoming more and more apparent that a mutually agreed solution is impossible and that an imposed solution by the international community may be the only way out. If this is the case, once again, the international community will be responsible for making political arrangements in the Balkans.

Will these arrangements produce a sustainable peace in the Balkans or will violent conflict remain a possibility? More importantly, how could an arrangement that has not been agreed on by both sides in the conflict be implemented?

The authors investigate these questions and discuss possible approaches to building a sustainable peace in the Balkans. Their analysis includes a brief look into the history of international engagement in the Balkans as a way of better understanding the international community’s share of responsibility for the region’s seemingly unsolvable problems. On the issue of Kosovo, they argue that an international conference on Kosovo followed by a comprehensive international conference on the Balkans, at which the interests of both Kosovo and Serbia are taken into consideration, could provide the key to resolving the current stalemate in the UN-sponsored talks.