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Conclusion
This book has assessed the role of the CNN effect in NATO’s decision
to intervene militarily over Kosovo. It also analyzed the influence of
the CNN effect on foreign policy decision–making in the context of
war and the nature of CNN effect itself. This conclusion summarizes
the key findings of this study on these three issues and then finishes
with concluding remarks on how the CNN effect will likely influence
warfare in the twenty-first century.
The CNN Effect and the
Kosovo Intervention
The evidence reviewed in this book’s case study demonstrates that the
CNN effect, as defined and qualified in this study, was one of the
influencing factors behind NATO’s decision to intervene militarily in
Kosovo. In reaching this conclusion, the study utilized the challeng-
ing CNN effect model, which was based on meeting five conditions
from which evidence in support of the CNN effect could be derived.
Over the 15 months before the NATO intervention, three specific
incidents involving massacres of Kosovo Albanians met these five con-
ditions. Each incident opened a window of opportunity in which policy
shifted incrementally toward military intervention.
Since the end of hostilities, a number of diplomats have dismissed
the notion that the media influenced Western policy in the period
before the intervention. Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to
NATO at the time, for example, has stated, “I don’t think it [media]
made a big difference ...I think from the outset . . . my government
was seized by the political and regional consequences [of the
1
crisis] . . . and with protecting our investment in Bosnia.” A detailed
review of policy just before and immediately after each incident, how-
ever, seems to contradict this assertion, as the following summary of
policy before and after each incident shows.
The Drenica massacre occurred between February 28, 1998 and
March 6, 1998, with the largest part in the village of Prekaz on