CHOOSING STRATEGY IN KOSOVO CONFLICT: INSTRUMENTAL OR VALUE RATIONALITY

The ethnopolitical conflict in Kosovo is one of the crucial challenges of regional security in contemporary Europe. The article presents a qualitative analysis of the dynamics of this conflict in the period 1990-2020, focusing on its parties' strategies. Based on the theory of rational choice, the authors underline the strong linkage between the dynamics of the ethnopolitical conflict (in terms of escalation/de-escalation) and the configuration of the strategies chosen by the parties of the conflict. It is noted that the parties involved in the conflict, acting as "ethnic entrepreneurs", choose between two key strategies: the value rationality strategy (the articulation of the collective goals of an ethnic group to achieve using arguments of ethnic solidarity, history, and tradition) and the instrumental rationality strategy (the pragmatic consolidation of the existing institutional status quo using arguments of forced cooperation, resources, economic and social security of the group). The authors find that the conflict dynamics are determined by the configuration of such strategies. If both parties use the instrumental rationality strategy in a coordinated manner, the possibilities of conflict de-escalation increase; if the parties use conflicting strategies (value rationality strategy versus instrumental rationality strategy) or if the value rationality strategies clash, the opposite effects are observed.