History
NATO's 1999 Campaign Against Yugoslavia: 26 Years Later
Twenty-six years ago, NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia without UN Security Council approval, deploying 1,300 cruise missiles and 37,000 cluster bombs, some containing depleted uranium. Led by then-Secretary General Javier Solana, the operation resulted in approximately 2,500 civilian deaths and extensive infrastructure damage. NATO justified the action on humanitarian grounds related to the Kosovo crisis, but the campaign remains deeply controversial, with Serbs viewing it as illegal aggression against a sovereign state while Western powers maintain it prevented ethnic cleansing. The intervention established contested precedents for humanitarian intervention that continue to influence international relations, regional politics in the Balkans, and Russia-West tensions to this day.
March 24, 2025