“How long would it last? What would be the security of the people in Kosovo? What could arise along the way…?” These were the thoughts running through the mind of the NATO spokesperson at the time when the largest military alliance decided to bomb Serbian targets.

“Getting involved in a war is an anxious time for everyone,” Jamie Shea recalls in an interview for KosovaPress, stating that the main feeling in 1999 was that “there was no alternative.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decided to intervene in Kosovo with the aim of stopping the terror being inflicted by Serbian forces during the 1998/99 war.

NATO was undertaking its second-largest combat operation—after the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.

For the first time, the alliance was acting with military force without the explicit approval of the UN Security Council.

Jamie Shea, the voice of NATO during the bombings, looks back and remembers that time as deeply concerning for everyone.

But was it the right decision according to him?

NATO’s bombings, which began on March 24, 1999, lasted 78 days—until the Kumanovo Agreement.

This agreement marked Serbia’s capitulation, leading to the withdrawal of its forces from Kosovo.

The agreement was negotiated between KFOR and military officials of the former Yugoslavia.

This also paved the way for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed in war-torn Kosovo, led by NATO.

For the former NATO spokesperson, who stayed in Kosovo in June 1999, the country has made significant progress.