News Sources: Kosovo Declares Independence

Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia has led to dancing in the streets in that country, but is causing some stress in other countries' global relationships. President Bush promptly recognized the new country, while Russia and Serbia will contest the declaration before the United Nations Security Council, saying it would set a troubling precedent. Britain, Italy, France and Germany are expected to recognize Kosovo, while Spain and Cyprus expected to oppose recognition. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including the following (click on name for contact information):

Thomas Emmert - Professor of History, Gustavus Adolphus College - Emmert is an expert on the history of Kosovo, Serbia, the Balkan states, and Russia. He has written The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat and The Kosovo Legacy. He teaches the European history survey, as well as courses on both Imperial and modern Russia, the Ottoman Empire, 19th century European intellectual and cultural movements, and Balkan nationalism.

Dr. Andrew A. Michta - Professor of International Studies, Rhodes College - Michta's books include The Government and Politics of Postcommunist Europe. In addition, he has been a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

William M. Rose - Professor of Government, Connecticut College - Professor Rose teaches courses on international relations, U.S. foreign policy, international terrorism, civil wars, and United Nations peacekeeping. During the Cold War, he specialized in U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations.

Bosnians Betrayed by World Court

The World Court recently ruled that Serbia could not be held responsible for genocide in the Bosnian community of Srebrenica, even though the court itself had concluded that genocide had occurred in Srebrenica in 1995 during a series of wars waged by former Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic against Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia. In a paper delivered recently at an international conference in Sarajevo, Wittenberg Professor of Sociology Keith Doubt called the ruling "disheartening" and said it "consummates a long history of betrayal that the people of Bosnia have suffered."