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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
policy stand out as areas of greatest potential influence for the CNN
effect. The next four chapters turn to the case study of this book and
assess the impact of the CNN effect on the West’s foreign policy
regarding Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. This was in many ways a remark-
able time, as the West dramatically shifted its policy from normalizing
relations with the FRY in early 1998 to bombing it one year later. The
next chapter provides a background on the Kosovo crisis of the 1990s
and a brief historical overview of the factors behind the 1998 Kosovo
civil war. It also reviews the West’s relationship to Kosovo and the
region and the context in which military intervention became a viable
possibility.