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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
Table 7.5 Change in Western Policy Aspects between Phases 6 and 7
Phase 6
Phase 7
• Autonomous Kosovo
• Autonomous Kosovo
protectorate based on interim
protectorate based on interim
settlement
settlement
• Final status meeting in three
Strategic Policy
years
• Attend international conference
• Sign interim settlement
and sign interim settlement
Tactical Policy A
• Ultimatum threatening force if
• Ultimatum threatening force if
Serbs do not sign settlement
Serbs do not sign settlement
• Withdraw support if Albanians
• Withdraw support if Albanians
do not sign settlement
do not sign settlement
Tactical Policy B
• Enforce settlement with
• Enforce settlement with
international implementation
international implementation
force
force
The acceptance by the Kosovo Albanian side and rejection by the
FRY brought the West to the position that many critics subsequently
suggested was Albright’s ultimate aim ever since Racak—a NATO
military intervention in Kosovo on the side of the Albanians. In the
final days before the air campaign began, a last-ditch effort was made
to pressure Milosevic to accept the Rambouillet Agreement. But this
attempt again failed, as the Serbian leader still refused to budge on the
issue of foreign troops anywhere in the FRY. According to Richard
Holbrooke, who was sent on this final mission to present the West’s
terms, “There was an air of resignation to him, and we sat alone in this
big, empty palace, surrounded by these inherited Rembrandts and
other art left over from earlier regimes ...You’re absolutely clear
what will happen when we leave? . . . And he said, very
quietly . . . ‘Yes. You’ll bomb us.’ ” 108
Once it became clear that military action was inevitable and foreign
policy became one of war, the images that had pushed the West
toward intervention changed their role and became instruments for
the promotion of official policy through the propaganda effect. These
images were also evoked on many occasions over the 78 days of