The Macedonian conflict and international law: self-determination and self-defence

The article analyses the international response to the Macedonian conflict, which rapidly developed after the NATO intervention in Kosovo in spring 1999. The international community was unable to effectively resolve the conflict; armed confrontation has ceased but a viable political solution is still a long way off. The argument here is that the NATO intervention led to the Macedonian conflict because of its apparent support for the Kosovo Albanians' drive for independence, which encouraged the ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to demand the same. The international response to the Yugoslav crisis was being devised and pursued at the European regional level rather than at the universal level through the UN. This approach unnecessarily complicated the international legal principles applicable to the Yugoslav crisis-a people's right to self-determination and a state's right to preserve its territorial integrity.