RECONCILIATION AS A NATIONAL SECURITY TOOL FOR KOSOVO AND SERBIA

Abstract Kosovo and Serbia share a strategic goal, the integration into the EU, defined as the critical national interest of both sides. However, due to the failure to reconcile a new armed conflict might emerge. While asking how the failure to reconcile impacts Kosovo's and Serbia's strategic goals, this paper aims to define and explain reconciliation's relevance and importance as a national security tool. Taking note of neo-functionalist principles of interdependence and cooperation as founding pillars of the EU and the realist offensive/defensive setting, which characterises the present relations between Kosovo and Serbia, this paper argues that, alongside the EU integration goal, genuine reconciliation should be Kosovo and Serbia's ultimate national interest and security goal as a bedrock for normalising the relations.