JSB066 The Kosovo Question: from the Serbian and Albanian National Revival to the Present

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Václav Štěpánek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Václav Štěpánek, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Václav Štěpánek, Ph.D.
Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Pavel Pilch, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The main aim of the course is to show the development and implications of the Kosovo question, which, as a complex multi-ethnic, religious, socio-economic, politico-cultural and international legal problem began to appear at the start of the 19th century, remained a latent problem during the whole period of interwar Yugoslavia, became a significant problem during the Second World War and was one of the key internal-political tests for the post-war Yugoslav state. Students from this course will realise that this question presents, due to complexity deriving from various ethnic, historical and territorial aspects, one of the most dangerous sources of tension in the whole area of South-Eastern Europe. By the end of the course students will be able to explain the historical reasons for the origin of the Kosovo question, describe the growth of Kosovo’s ethnic and demographic problems and interpret the inter-ethnic Serbo-Albanian relations in this southern Serbian autonomous region, they will be able to describe the crises in Serbo-Albanian relations in the 1980‘s and 90‘s, and understand the unsuccessful attempts of the Serbian and Yugoslav elites to solve them. Based on this information, students will be able to provide an overview of the contemporary situation in Kosovo and consider how Kosovo might develop further.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be able to explain the historical reasons for the origin of the Kosovo question, describe the growth of Kosovo’s ethnic and demographic problems and interpret the inter-ethnic Serbo-Albanian relations in this southern Serbian autonomous region, they will be able to describe the crises in Serbo-Albanian relations in the 1980‘s and 90‘s, and understand the unsuccessful attempts by the Serbian and Yugoslavian elites to solve them. Based on this information, students will be able to provide an overview of the contemporary situation in Kosovo and consider how Kosovo might develop further.
Syllabus
  • 1. Historiographical discursion. The ethnogenesis of the Albanians. Kosovo within the medieval Serbian state. The Kosovo battle and the Kosovo myth. Kosovo as part of the Ottoman Empire.
  • 2. Kosovo during the 19th century – the beginnings of the awakening of an Albanian national consciousness, Serbia’s dealings with Kosovo. The Young Turks, the Albanian uprising in 1912 and the Balkan wars. Kosovo during the First World War.
  • 3. Royal Yugoslavia and the Kosovo problem. The Second World War: Greater Albania
  • 4. The post-war development of Kosovo within Tito’s Yugoslavia.
  • 5. Institutions since 1974 – maximised version of autonomy. The rise of Kosovo up until 1981.
  • 6. 1981 demonstration. The critical Serbian intelligentsia and the Kosovo problem. Interethnic relations in Kosovo till 1987.
  • 7. The Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the political rise of Slobodan Milosevic.
  • 8. The Serbian “anti-bureaucratic” revolution and Kosovo’s loss of autonomy.
  • 9. The establishment of an independent Albanian political structures and a parallel Kosovan state.
  • 10. The development of the Kosovo question till 1996. The formation of the KLA and its early activities.
  • 11. The KLA versus the Serbian security forces: conflict from 1997- March 1999. The international community and the Kosovo question. Negotiations in Rambouillet and Paris.
  • 12. The NATO air war. Developments in Kosovo following the Kumanovo Agreement.
  • 13. Current problems in Kosovo and the surrounding regions.
Literature
    required literature
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Jugoslávie – Srbsko – Kosovo. Kosovská otázka ve 20. století (Yugoslavia – Serbia – Kossovo. Kossovo issue in 20th century). 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2011, 471 pp. Spisy MU v Brně, Filozofická fakulta ; č. 396. ISBN 978-80-210-5476-9. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • PELIKÁN, Jan. Národnostní otázka ve Svazové republice Jugoslávii : geneze-vývoj-perspektivy. 1. vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 1997, 87 s. ISBN 8071844829. info
    recommended literature
  • STOJAROVÁ, Věra. Otázka kosovská v širším pojetí bezpečnosti (Kosovo question in the wider security concept). In ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Současné Srbsko- politika, kultura, Evropská unie. první. Brno: Ústav slavistiky, 2007, p. 101-125, 24 pp. ISBN 80-7326-127-8. info
  • PETTIFER, James and Miranda VICKERS. The Albanian question : reshaping the Balkans. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007, xxiii, 312. ISBN 9781860649745. info
  • MALCOLM, Noel. Kosovo : a short history. 1st pub. London: Pan Books, 1998, lii, 492. ISBN 0330412248. info
    not specified
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Aktuální problémy srbské společnosti (Contemporary problems of serbian society). In Současné Srsbko - politika, kultura, Evropská unie. 1st ed. Brno: Historický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Ústav slavistiky FF MU, Jihomoravský kraj, 2007, p. 11-34. ISBN 80-7326-127-8. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Církev a stát (Church and State). In Současné Srbsko - politika, kultura, Evropská unie. 1st ed. Brno: Historický ústav AV ČR, Ústav slavistiky FF MU, Jihomoravský kraj, 2007, p. 93-101. ISBN 80-7326-127-8. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Osidla etnofiletismu: Srbská pravoslavná církev v zajetí kosovského mýtu (In the Toils of Ethnophiletism: Serbian Orthodox Churche in the Captivity of the Kosovo Myth). Studia historica brunensia. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2007, 53/2006, No 1, p. 117–132. ISSN 0231-7710. info
  • STOJAROVÁ, Věra. Současné bezpečnostní hrozby západního Balkánu. Kritická analýza konceptu Kodaňské školy. (Current security threats of the Western Balkans. Critical analysis of the Copenhagen school concept of security.). Brno: CDK, 2007, 295 pp. politologická řada. ISBN 978-80-7325-134-5. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Srbsko a Evropská unie - problémy integrace (Serbia and European Union: problems of the integation). In Slované a Evropa na počátku 21. století. 1st ed. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2007, p. 41-57. ISBN 978-80-210-4487-6. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Zrušení Kosovské autonomie: Zásadní mezník na cestě k nezávislosti Kosova (Kosovo Autonomy Abolishment: Principal Turning Point of Kosovo Independence). Slovanské historické studie. Praha-Brno: Historický ústav AV ČR, 2007, vol. 32, No 32, p. 351-361. ISSN 0081-007X. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Antibyrokratická revoluce v Srbsku v letech 1988-1989. (Serbian Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution in 1988-1989). Studia historica brunensia. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2006, vol. 2006, C52, p. 189–223., 35 pp. ISSN 0231-7710. info
  • STOJAROVÁ, Věra. Organizovaný zločin na území západního Balkánu (Organized crime in the Western Balkans). In NĚMEC, Jan and Markéta ŠŮSTKOVÁ. Kongres českých politologů, Olomouc, 8-10.9.2006. Praha, Olomouc: Česká společnost pro politické vědy, 2006, p. 393-405, 12 pp. ISBN 978-80-902176-0-7. info
  • KING, Iain and Whit MASON. Peace at any price : how the world failed Kosovo. London: Hurst & Company, 2006, xx, 303. ISBN 1850658420. info
  • Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia :proceedings of the scientific conference held in Kosovska Mitrovica from M ay 27 to 29, 2005. Edited by Stevan Karamata - Časlav Ocić. Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, 2006, 471 s. ISBN 8670254107. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Srbské snahy o revizi principů jugoslávské ústavy z roku 1974 (Od konce šedesátých let 20. století do 8. zasedání Ústředního výboru Svazu komunistů Srbska v září 1987) (Serbian Attempts to Revise the Principles of the Yugoslavian Constitution of 1974 (From the End of the 1960s till the 8th Session of the Central Committee of the League of Serbian Communists in September 1987). Slovanské historické studie. Praha, Brno: Historický ústav AV ČR, 2006, vol. 31, No 31, p. 101–136. ISSN 0081-007X. info
  • THOMAS, Nigel and Krunoslav MIKULAN. The Yugoslav wars : Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia 1992-2001. Illustrated by Darko Pavlović. 1st publ. Oxford: Osprey Pub., 2006, 64 s. ISBN 1841769649. info
  • NORRIS, John. Collision course : NATO, Russia, and Kosovo. London: Praeger Pub., 2005, xxv, 333. ISBN 0275987531. URL info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Nikdo vás nesmí bít... O některých aspektech počátků politické kariéry Slobodana Miloševiće (No one is allowed to beat you... On Some Aspects of the Origin of Slobodan Milošević´s Political Career). In Slavista s duší básníka. Sborník k sedmdesátinám Ivana Dorovského. 1st ed. Brno-Boskovice: Nakladatelství František Šalé - Albert, 2005, p. 210-219, 20 pp. ISBN 80-7326-058-1. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. VIII. zasedání Ústředního výboru Svazu komunistů Srbska - přelomové datum moderní jugoslávské historie. Příspěvek k objasnění mocenského vzestupu Slobodana Miloševiće (8th Session of Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia; a Turning Point of Modern Yugoslavian History). Studia historica brunensia. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2005, 51/2004, No 1, p. 179-194. ISSN 0231-7710. info
  • LATAWSKI, Paul C. and Martin A. SMITH. The Kosovo crisis and the evolution of post-Cold War European security. New York: Manchester University Press, 2003, x, 230. ISBN 0719059801. URL info
  • GRESSANI, Daniela and Saumya MITRA. Structural reforms in Southeastern Europe since the Kosovo conflict. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002, vi, 31. ISBN 0821351974. info
  • CLARK, Wesley K. Waging modern war : Bosnia, Kosovo, and the future of combat. New York: Public Affairs, 2002, xlv, 479. ISBN 1586481398. info
  • Kosovo :economic ans social reforms for peace and reconciliation. 1st ed. Washington: The World Bank, 2001, viii, 149. ISBN 0-8213-4942-2. info
  • Degraded capability : the media and the Kosovo crisis. Edited by Philip Hammond - Edward S. Harman. 1st pub. London: Pluto Press, 2000, x, 222 s. ISBN 0-7453-1631-X. info
  • VICKERS, Miranda and James PETTIFER. Albania :from anarchy to a balkan identity. 2nd imp. London: Hurst & Company, 1999, xvii, 326. ISBN 1-85065-290-2. info
  • ŠTĚPÁNEK, Václav. Zápisky z doby bombardování (Notes from the time the bombing). Edited by Ivan Dorovský. 1st ed. Brno: Společnost přátel jižních Slovanů, 1999, 55 pp. info
Teaching methods
Lectures with compulsory attendance.
Assessment methods
Final exam in the form of an oral test for which students prepare topics beforehand. There will be a further test of students’ knowledge in the form of follow-up questions.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/JSB066