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THE KOSOVO CRISIS—THE MICRO REVIEW
bombing and, along with new ones from the mass Kosovar expul-
sions and refugee camps along the borders of Kosovo, collectively
played an important role in maintaining public Western support for
the intervention.
The last two chapters of this book utilized the four tests of the chal-
lenging CNN effect model—the quantitative, coding, policy sub-
stance, and linkage—to assess if government policy shifted in response
to incidents meeting the media criteria for the CNN effect. In sum-
mary, there is substantial evidence to suggest that policy shifted after
each of these incidents toward war. Such policy shifts were often not
dramatic, but rather gradual and often tactical in nature. Policy
change also did not occur in a straightforward or rational fashion, but
was the outcome of the political climate created by the massacres that
allowed those in favor of intervention within foreign policy decision–
making circles to nudge their positions forward against temporarily
weakened opponents. The media images and framing, in essence,
became a political weapon favoring one policy outcome over another,
in the bureaucratic horse-trading environment called foreign policy
decision–making.
The significance of the media’s role does not suggest that it was the
only variable that was pushing policy in the direction of war. The case
study in this book clearly demonstrates that other factors were also at
play. However, the importance of the media and its role in the inter-
vention are certainly more important than the literature on the
Kosovo war has acknowledged to date.