The Ethics of Water Securitization: Understanding the 1999 Bombing Campaign in Kosovo

Abstract

The 1999 bombing of Kosovo by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) represented a considerable shift in the manner that states waged conventional wars. In the literature, academics represent the means employed by the parties involved as innovative developments from a warfare standpoint. The methods all militaries and paramilitaries used, however, relied extensively on principles surrounding the securitization of water. The Serbs, in their efforts to expel the Kosovar Albanians, deployed it as a tool to ethnically cleanse the province. NATO, while initially hesitant to target the electrical grid of Yugoslavia for fear that the media and others would portray the strain it would place on the civilian population in a negative light, eventually did so as the ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo accelerated. While not typically discussed in the literature, the securitization of water by all parties formed a key consideration for their policies throughout the campaign, and an important ethical question for both academics studying the issue and practitioners as they pursued war-related activities. Finally, the weaponization of water in Kosovo helped provide impetus for the development of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which while not explicitly emphasizing water has significant implications for the ethics of water security.