As the status of Kosovo (province of Serbia : see map on following page) moves toward a decision, many of the remaining Serbs in Kosovo retain a sense of unease regarding their collective future. Both ethnic Albanian and ethnic Serbs in the disputed province have been waiting on tender hooks to see how their future will resolve. It has been very difficult for both sides to move on past the region’s sullied history, when their future remains uncertain. The international community has been trying to rebuild governance and other political and social institutions as well as the economy, all of which are integral to nation-building. While some of these efforts have been successful, there is still a long way to go. Should Kosovo revert to Serbian control, it is unlikely that there would be much cooperation from the majority Kosovo Albanians. Instead of institution building, they would be preparing for something else. While it would seem the same logic would apply to the Kosovo Serbs should Kosovo gain independence from Serbia, it may be more the case that the Kosovo Serbs simply do not have the wherewithal to counter a final status decision that goes against them.

While the Kosovo Serbs are now a small minority within Kosovo and are without much power, their links with Serbia proper are strong, and Kosovo has long had an almost mystical draw for Serbia. Historically, Kosovo has been viewed as the promised land, and it is the home of the Serbian Orthodox church. The NATO bombing campaign in 1999 was the intervention by the international community against Serbian forces who had been eradicating the culture and rights of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Many Albanians were forced to flee the country. Yet, after Serbian forces left Kosovo, there was a reversal of fortune, and ethnic Serbs became the victims of ethnic cleansing campaigns. Since that time, the remaining Serbs have lived mostly in their own enclaves using their own language and Cyrillic spellings as well as currency, the Dinar. This is contrary to the Albanian majority areas where Albanian is spoken, and the Euro is used. The Serb press has played up these enclaves as being akin to World War II camps in occupied Yugoslavia . Yet, with all these ties that bind and strong rhetoric on a recent visit by Serb President Boris Tadic , it is debatable whether the Serb government will take major action should Kosovo be permanently taken away from Serbia.

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