State-building and the recognition of a right to statehood: international involvement in post-1999 Kosovo

Informed by a novel conceptualization of the recognition of a right to statehood and its relation to state-building, this study explores under what conditions international organizations contributed to the building of a state in post- 1999 Kosovo, even when, unlike what is the norm elsewhere, they did not show an explicit support for independence. In this way, the study offers a new set of lenses to view state-building in Kosovo, but also helps us understand better the complex ways in which states are built and recognized as sovereign in contested territories, and how statehood conflicts in those territories develop and settle.