Analysis
EU Values Foresight
Security
Building Civic Resilience: Challenges and Solutions in Central Europe
12 December 2024
The post-Cold War period was characterised by global military interventions and the United States’ increased involvement on the world stage. The US intervened militarily in Kosovo and Afghanistan and initiated state-building in both countries.
State-building has developed into an integral part of peacebuilding, and this is evident in a number of conflicts, including Kosovo and Afghanistan. State-building refers to strengthening the functionality of the state.
According to James Dobbins, an American diplomat, state-building missions aim ‘to halt a conflict, if one is still underway, forestall any resumption in the fighting and promote the emergence of an indigenous government capable ultimately of resuming full responsibility for the security and well-being of its population.’
As the world was entering a unipolar moment, the US became the most critical actor in world politics. On 24 March 1999, the US-led NATO mission launched ‘Operation Allied Force’, an aerial campaign to prevent further Yugoslav atrocities in Kosovo and topple the Slobodan Milošević regime.