Operation Allied Force in Kosovo and Other Humanitarian Military Interventions since 1990

The 1999 intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Kosovo was seen as a turning point in international responses to mass crimes. Using a dataset on humanitarian military interventions, this contribution examines the extent to which the Kosovo intervention has indeed initiated new trends. Contrary to the assumption that it set a precedent, NATO’s Operation Allied Force was the second-last illegal humanitarian military intervention. Nor did the Kosovo intervention mark the beginning of an upward trend in the ratio of humanitarian military interventions to violent conflicts. States and international organizations have continued to intervene selectively. In contrast to many other cases, Operation Allied Force stopped the armed conflict relatively soon. But when the death rate during the intervention is compared to the death rate at an earlier point in the conflict, Kosovo is the case with the worst increase. Since 1999, humanitarian military interventions have not been more successful in de-escalating conflict violence than before.