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CHAP TE R 6
The Government during the Kosovo
Crisis—The Macro Review
This chapter now turns to the second key element essential for a
CNN effect—impact on government foreign policy. In the second
chapter, four tests in relation to the government and its policy were
introduced for validating cases of the CNN effect. This chapter
focuses on the first two of these tests—the quantitative and the cod-
ing tests. The next chapter focuses on the last two tests—the policy
substance and the linkage tests. This division is made because the
first two tests review the 15-month period before NATO interven-
tion in Kosovo in its entirety, while the latter two review the period
over seven phases, discerning the periods before and after the events
meeting the media criteria for the CNN effect. As such, this chapter
is subtitled “The Macro Review,” while the next chapter is subtitled
“The Micro Review.”
Before beginning the analysis, four terms need to be defined in the
context of this study—“Western,” “government,” “actions,” and “atti-
tude.” “Western” refers to the United States and the EU, with greater
1
emphasis on the former. “Government” refers to the following six
institutions: the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of
Defense, the U.S. White House, the Contact Group, NATO, and the
2
EU Council. “Actions” refer to two activities: the issuance of press
releases and statements by these institutions in which the majority of
the content (50 percent or more) refers to the Kosovo conflict, and
acts of diplomacy specifically aimed at dealing with this crisis.
“Attitude” refers to how Western governments position themselves
between the two sides in the Kosovo civil war, in terms of the frame
adopted, the assignment of blame, and references made to the need
for a military intervention as a solution to the conflict. Throughout the
rest of this chapter, whenever these terms are used, they refer to the
definitions outlined here.