The terms Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict refer to two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslavia. From early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), who sought the independence of Kosovo from Yugoslavia. The organization was classified by Serbia as a terrorist organization because of the attacks that its members committed against the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Military. From March 24 1999 to June 11 1999,NATO waged an air campaign against Yugoslavia, while the KLA continued to battle the Yugoslav Security Forces, amidst a massive population displacement estimated^{[by whom?]} to be close to 800,000 people.^{[citation needed]}

The KLA, formed in 1991, began attacking police stations and Yugoslav government offices in February 1996, which resulted in an increase in the number of Yugoslav security forces in the region. This led to an escalation into a conflict, although it was initially viewed as an insurgency. The KLA was regarded by the US as a terrorist group until 1998 when it was de-listed for classified reasons. The UK and the US then lobbied France to do the same. The US and NATO then cultivated diplomatic relationships with the KLA's leaders. This happened despite the fact that General Klaus Naumann (the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee) stated that "Ambassador Walker stated in the NAC (North Atlantic Council) that the majority of violations were caused by the KLA."

Kosovo ( /ˈkɒsəvoʊˌ ˈkoʊsəvoʊ/; Albanian: Kosovë, Kosova; Serbian: Косово or Косово и Метохија or Космет, Kosovo or Kosovo i Metohija or Kosmet) is a region in southeastern Europe. In antiquity, it was known as the independent kingdom, and later Roman province, of Dardania. Part of the medieval Serbia, it was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire, later incorporated into Serbia after the First Balkan War and before the constitution of Yugoslavia, later still it became the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (Serbian: Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija) within Serbia (Serbia then being one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia). Long-term severe ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb populations have left Kosovo ethnically divided, resulting in inter-ethnic violence, including the Kosovo War of 1999. Following the Kosovo War, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) relinquished governance of this territory, whose governance was taken over by the United Nations, Kosovo remained legally the sovereign territory of the FRY after the transfer of authority. The partially recognised Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово, Republika Kosovo), a self-declared independent state, has de facto control over most of the territory, while North Kosovo, the largest Kosovo Serb enclave, is under the control of institutions of the Republic of Serbia.Serbia does not recognise the unilateral secession of Kosovo and considers it a UN-governed entity within its sovereign territory.

Miroslav Lazanski (born 1950) is a politico-military commentator for the Belgrade daily Politika.

Born in Karlovac (at the time PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia) to a Slovenian father and Serbian mother, he graduated from the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Law. His first jobs in journalism were for the Vjesnik daily newspaper and the Danas and Start weekly news magazines in Zagreb.

In February 1991 Lazanski moved to Belgrade and worked at Politika, where he was a commentator until fall 1995.

While he was writing for different Balkan publications, Lazanski's articles were also published in the Greek newspaper Katimerini and the Japanese newspapers Diamond Weekly and Securitarian.

He reported on armed conflicts such as the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Gulf War during Desert Storm, Chechnya, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He interviewed Bernard W. Rogers, John Galvin, Sergei Akhromeyev, Viktor Kulikov, Dmitry Yazov, Vladimir Chernavin, Vladimir Kryuchkov, Igor Radionov, Bennie L. Davis, Paul Sper, Crosbie E. Saint, Huntington Hardisty, Sir John Woodward, James Alan Abrahamson, Johan Jørgen Holst, Ferenc Kárpáti, Vasile Milea, Dobri Dzhurov, Shahnawaz Tanai, Maher Abdul Rashid, Helmut Willmann, Guido Venturoni, Joe Modise, Georg Meiring, and others. He has authored several books.