Kosovo and the great powers rule

Arguably, Kosovo can be differentiated from East Timor because the latter represented a delayed exercise of self-determination in the decolonization paradigm, while the former constituted a case of remedial secession outside any decolonization context. Nonetheless, the role of the great powers and their influence in realizing the self-determination dream is very similar in Kosovo and in East Timor. 

In Kosovo, the great powers were instrumental in ensuring that the Kosovar Albanians acquired their long-sought independence from Serbia. First, it was those great powers that are members of NATO that organized the 1999 series 

The unusual combination of factors found in the Kosovo situation— including the context of Yugoslavia s breakup, the history of ethnic cleansing and crimes against civilians in Kosovo, and the extended period of UN administration—are not found elsewhere and therefore make Kosovo a special case. Kosovo cannot be seen as precedent for any other situation in the world today. 

Explicit in this message was that Kosovo could never be a model for any other separatist movement, and that Kosovo was not about remedial secession or external self-determination. Rather, Kosovo was simply unique—because the great powers had decided so. Kosovo illustrates the great powers rule at its best, as well as the evisceration of legal rules on self-determination in favor of political determinations and strategic factors. 

Other scholars have written on the role of the great powers and their influence in Kosovo. Professor Christine Chinkin has argued that the Kosovo intervention shows that the West continues to script international law, even while it ignores the constitutional safeguards of the international legal order. Moreover, Professor Chinkin wrote that instances of humanitarian intervention since 1990 have all involved a use of force by the West against a non-Western 

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