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Kosovo and the bombing of Yugoslavia - A new crime of imperialism

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The central thesis is that NATO's 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia was not a humanitarian intervention to protect Kosovar Albanians, but a calculated act of imperialist aggression driven by the strategic interests of the major capitalist powers — above all the United States and Germany. Alan Woods argues that the entire framework of "humanitarian war" is a propaganda smokescreen: NATO acts not to defend oppressed nationalities but to impose its will on a state that refuses to submit to imperialist diktat, and to stabilise the Balkans on terms favourable to Western capital. The article further contends that the break-up of Yugoslavia itself was a criminal act, driven by German imperialism's Drang nach Osten and abetted by the nationalist turn of ex-Stalinist bureaucratic elites, and that the resulting ethnic slaughter cannot be justified by any appeal to the Leninist right of self-determination — which was always subordinate to the interests of working-class unity and world revolution.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in the classical Marxist theory of imperialism, drawing directly on Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and the Bolshevik tradition on the national question. Woods deploys Lenin's insistence that the right of self-determination is a democratic demand, not an absolute principle, and that it must be subordinated to the class struggle and the fight for socialism. The article also echoes Trotsky's analysis of the United States as a world gendarme in the epoch of capitalist decay — a power that, having emerged as the sole superpower, finds itself trapped by its own global role, its wealth sapped by military overextension.

The argument sits firmly within the tradition of revolutionary defeatism and internationalism. It rejects any notion that one set of imperialist powers can play a progressive role against another, and it refuses to take sides between rival national bourgeoisies in the Balkans. Instead, it advances the classic Marxist solution to the national question in the region: the Socialist Federation of the Balkans, now updated as part of the struggle for a Socialist United States of Europe. The article also draws on the Marxist critique of petty-bourgeois nationalism and individual terrorism, condemning the Kosovo Liberation Army's tactics as adventurist and self-defeating.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was written in March 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the first NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia. It captures a specific conjuncture: the post-Soviet unipolar moment, when US imperialism appeared unchallenged but was already revealing the contradictions of its global dominance. Woods notes that the bombing was conducted without UN Security Council authorisation, exposing the UN as a forum for airing secondary differences between imperialist powers, not a body capable of restraining them. He points to the growing instability in Russia — the humiliating U-turn of Primakov's plane, the protests outside the US embassy, the risk of Yeltsin's overthrow — as evidence that imperialist aggression in the Balkans could have unpredictable geopolitical consequences.

The article also identifies the specific imperialist rivalries within NATO: the tension between the US and its European allies, the reluctance of Greece and Italy, and the explosive potential of the Macedonian question. Woods warns that the bombing would not achieve its stated aims — that air power alone cannot defeat a guerrilla force in mountainous terrain — and that the real danger was a wider Balkan war drawing in Greece, Turkey, Albania, and Bulgaria. This analysis proved prescient: the bombing did not prevent the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians (which intensified after the strikes began), and the unresolved status of Kosovo remains a source of instability to this day.

Where the Argument Continues

This article is one of several by Alan Woods and the In Defence of Marxism tendency analysing the Yugoslav wars and the national question in the Balkans. The argument is developed further in:

  • "The Balkans: Nationalism and the Workers' State" — a longer theoretical treatment of the national question in the region, situating the Yugoslav conflict within the broader crisis of the Stalinist states.
  • "The Destruction of Yugoslavia" — a historical analysis tracing the break-up from the death of Tito through the rise of nationalist bureaucracies.
  • Against the Stream episodes on the Balkans — regular commentary on developments in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Macedonia, applying the same framework to subsequent events.
  • "Imperialism and the National Question" — a broader theoretical pamphlet that defends the Leninist position against both reformist and nationalist distortions.

The article also leaves open the question of how the working class in the Balkans might actually build the Socialist Federation it advocates — a question addressed in more programmatic texts on revolutionary strategy in Eastern Europe.

Connections

  • Lenin, "The Right of Nations to Self-Determination" — the classical text from which Woods draws his theoretical framework.
  • Trotsky, "The Balkan Wars" — Trotsky's journalism from the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, which Woods explicitly invokes as a model of Marxist analysis of the region.
  • Trotsky, "The United States and the World Crisis" — Trotsky's prediction that US global dominance would be built on dynamite.
  • Rosa Luxemburg, "The Junius Pamphlet" — Luxemburg's insistence on the choice between socialism and barbarism, which Woods cites directly.
  • Alan Woods, "The National Question and the Balkans" — a companion article that expands on the theoretical grounding.
  • In Defence of Marxism, "The Crisis in Yugoslavia" (1992) — the article Woods refers to as having predicted the consequences of the break-up seven years earlier.

Key Quotes

  1. "Since when did the imperialist alliance which is NATO fight wars to defend oppressed nations, oppose dictatorships and uphold the right of nations to self-determination? The very idea is laughable. If NATO forces are in the Balkans it is to defend the interests of imperialism, and nothing else."

  2. "Lenin stood for the right of self-determination as a democratic right. But he never considered it to be an absolute right, independent of time and space. On the contrary. He said it was subordinate to the general interests of the proletariat and the world revolution."

  3. "The USA has no interest in an independent Kosovo. At a given moment they will betray the Kosovars, as they always betray small nations who place their trust in imperialism. The history of the Balkans is full of such examples."

  4. "The idea that the imperialists can play some kind of progressive role in Kosovo is an abomination and a lie. It was the height of stupidity on the part of the Kosovo Liberation Army to imagine that they could gain independence with the help of Washington."

  5. "The barbarous bombing campaign against Yugoslavia is the latest manifestation of a new period of convulsions on a world scale. Ten years ago they spoke of a New World Order. Now we see the reality of a New World Disorder."

  6. "Marx predicted that there are only two alternatives before humanity: socialism or barbarism. On the path of nationalism only the second alternative is possible. Only by fighting capitalism and imperialism, for the socialist transformation of society, can this horror be averted."