A National Security Strategy is commonly understood as the highest-level instrument through which a state aligns its security objectives with institutional responsibilities, resources, and methods of implementation. In Kosovo, the adoption of a Security Strategy is both constitutionally and legally mandated. However, the existing legal framework does not clearly define the legal nature, binding force, or institutional consequences of the adopted document. This paper argues that Kosovo’s national security architecture is weakened by a fundamental conceptual and legal flaw: the conflation of national security policy with national security strategy. Through legal analysis and engagement with established strategic literature, the paper demonstrates that Kosovo’s current Security Strategy functions primarily as a declaratory policy document rather than as an operational strategy. The paper concludes by proposing a reform of Kosovo’s national security legal framework that clearly separates policy formulation from strategic implementation and assigns binding legal force to parliamentary-adopted security policy.
Keywords: Kosovo, National Security, Strategy, Policy, Legal Framework
Ngadhnjim Brovina, PhD
Professor of Political Science and Security Studies
University for Business and Technology (UBT)
Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
Albatros Rexhaj, PhD
National Security Studies
Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
Introduction
National security strategy occupies the highest tier of strategic governance in contemporary states. It is intended to translate national interests into coordinated action by defining priorities, allocating resources, and aligning political, military, economic, and societal instruments over time. Particularly for states facing persistent external and internal security challenges, a national security strategy should function as a central mechanism of governance rather than as a symbolic or purely political document.
Kosovo presents a distinctive constitutional and legal case. Unlike most states, Kosovo’s Constitution explicitly establishes a National Security Council and mandates the development of a Security Strategy. The Law on the Kosovo Security Council further authorizes the Government to draft the Security Strategy and submit it to the Assembly of Kosovo for final approval. These provisions signal a clear institutional acknowledgment of the importance of strategic planning at the highest level of state authority.
Despite this formal recognition, Kosovo’s national security legal framework suffers from a critical deficiency. Neither the Constitution nor the applicable law specifies the legal nature of the Security Strategy or clarifies the obligations that follow from its adoption by the Assembly. As a result, Kosovo’s Security Strategy occupies an ambiguous position between binding legal act and non-binding political declaration.
This paper argues that such ambiguity significantly undermines the strategic value of Kosovo’s Security Strategy. Drawing on established distinctions in national security theory—particularly the analytical separation between national security policy and national security strategy—the paper demonstrates that Kosovo’s current framework mislabels and misuses the concept of strategy. The paper further argues that effective reform requires a clear legal separation between policy definition and strategic execution, accompanied by explicit clarification of the Strategy’s legal status within Kosovo’s constitutional order.
Policy and Strategy: Conceptual Clarification
The distinction between national security policy and national security strategy is well established in security studies, yet it is frequently blurred in both academic and governmental practice. The Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) offers a particularly useful clarification. According to DCAF, a national security policy articulates a state’s security objectives and priorities, whereas a national security strategy specifies the mechanisms through which those objectives are pursued and sustained over time (DCAF, 2015).
In this conceptual framework, policy defines ends, while strategy addresses means and methods. A strategy therefore performs a translational function: it converts political intent into coordinated institutional action by outlining instruments, sequencing efforts, and managing resources across sectors.
The Atlantic Council similarly frames national security strategy as a tool for governing uncertainty, emphasizing its role in managing risk across future security challenges rather than merely describing threats (DuMont, 2019). Once articulated, a strategy should guide the development of subordinate doctrines, plans, and policies, ensuring coherence across government (Kugler, 2006).
Israel’s national security doctrine provides a particularly instructive comparative reference. It conceptualizes national security as the integration of political, military, economic, cognitive, and social instruments under a unified strategic framework (Eisenkot & Siboni, 2019). Importantly, this integration is not rhetorical but institutional, linking strategic priorities to decision-making processes and resource allocation.
At its core, strategy requires prioritization. Strategic choice necessarily involves trade-offs, as resources are finite and objectives often compete. As such, strategy cannot simply catalogue aspirations; it must establish relative importance and guide decision-making under constraint (Logan & Friedman, 2022). This requirement distinguishes strategy from policy declarations, which may legitimately remain broad or aspirational.
Kosovo’s Security Strategy: Content and Function
Since declaring independence in 2008, Kosovo has adopted two Security Strategies, in 2014 and 2022 respectively. The 2014 Strategy emerged from Kosovo’s Strategic Security Sector Review, while the 2022 Strategy followed the establishment of the Ministry of Defence and the formal reorientation of the Kosovo Security Force toward territorial defence.
In substantive terms, the 2022 Security Strategy reflects contemporary approaches to security. It incorporates human security, economic resilience, and environmental considerations alongside traditional defence and intelligence concerns. The Strategy identifies four vital security interests: protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity; preservation of constitutional order and public safety; human security and social development; and integration into Euro-Atlantic and other international structures (Government of Kosovo, 2022).
The document emphasizes capacity development in defence, intelligence, and critical infrastructure protection, as well as resilience against hybrid threats. It also outlines broad ambitions, including increased defence spending, modernization of security institutions, and the potential development of reserve or conscription models.
However, despite its breadth, the Strategy remains largely descriptive. It enumerates objectives and institutional ambitions but provides limited guidance on implementation, sequencing, coordination, or evaluation. The document explains what Kosovo seeks to protect and develop, but it offers little detail on how these goals are to be operationalized, financed, and sustained.
In this respect, Kosovo’s Security Strategy aligns more closely with what strategic theory would classify as a national security policy rather than a strategy. While it identifies priorities and interests, it does not function as a plan of action in the sense articulated by Drew and Snow (1988). Consequently, despite its formal designation, the document operates primarily as a policy statement.
Legal Status of the Security Strategy in Kosovo
Kosovo’s national security legal framework is distinctive in comparative perspective. The Constitution explicitly establishes the National Security Council and mandates the development of a Security Strategy in cooperation with the President and the Government (Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, 2008). The Law on the Kosovo Security Council further requires that the Strategy be approved by the Assembly of Kosovo (Law No. 03/L-050, 2008).
What the framework does not do, however, is define the legal character of the Security Strategy once adopted by the Assembly. Article 65 of the Constitution empowers the Assembly to adopt laws, resolutions, and other general acts, but neither the Constitution nor the Security Council Law specifies into which category the Security Strategy falls.
This omission creates a fundamental legal uncertainty. If the Security Strategy is treated as a law, it should generate binding obligations, authorize resource allocation, and impose duties on institutions. If it is merely a resolution or general political act, its normative force is limited and its practical impact questionable.
The existing framework offers no clear resolution to this dilemma. Both the 2014 and 2022 Strategies were formally adopted by the Assembly, yet neither document defines institutional responsibilities, timelines, or enforcement mechanisms. As a result, the Strategy’s legal status remains indeterminate, weakening its strategic and governance value.
Reforming the Legal Framework
For Kosovo’s Security Strategy to fulfil its intended role, the legal framework must be restructured to clarify both substance and authority. First, the law should explicitly distinguish between a National Security Policy and a National Security Strategy. This distinction should be reflected not only in terminology but also in institutional responsibility.
Given the constitutional separation of powers, the Assembly of Kosovo should be responsible for adopting a National Security Policy as a binding legal act. This policy would define national security interests, establish priorities, and authorize the allocation of resources and institutional responsibilities. As a parliamentary act, it would carry the legal force equivalent to that of an adopted law.
The Government, acting within the framework of the adopted policy, should then be legally mandated to develop and adopt a National Security Strategy. This strategy would operationalize the policy by detailing implementation mechanisms, coordination procedures, timelines, and performance benchmarks.
Second, the legal character of the National Security Policy must be explicitly defined. Assigning it the status of a law would empower the executive branch to mobilize resources, restructure institutions, and pursue long-term strategic initiatives with legal certainty and democratic legitimacy.
Finally, the Law on the Kosovo Security Council should be amended to codify these distinctions and responsibilities. Without such reform, Kosovo’s Security Strategy will remain strategically ambitious but legally fragile.
Conclusions
Strategic literature consistently identifies national security strategy as the highest level of strategic governance. Kosovo’s constitutional and statutory framework formally acknowledges this importance. Yet the current legal and conceptual design of Kosovo’s Security Strategy prevents it from functioning as a genuine strategic instrument.
By conflating policy with strategy and failing to define the legal nature of the adopted document, Kosovo’s national security framework deprives the Strategy of binding force and operational clarity. This paper has argued that effective reform requires a clear separation between policy formulation and strategic implementation, accompanied by explicit legal definitions of authority and obligation.
Kosovo’s unique constitutional architecture provides an opportunity to align legal practice with strategic theory. Clarifying the legal status and functional role of national security documents would significantly strengthen Kosovo’s capacity for coherent, accountable, and effective national security governance.
References
Baldwin, David A. "The Concept of Security." Review of International Studies 23, no. 1 (January 1997): 5–26.
Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, 2008.
DCAF. National Security Policies: Formulating National Security Policies for Good Security Sector Governance. 2015.
Drew, D., and Snow. D. Making Strategy: An Introduction to National Security Processes and Problems. Air University Press, 1988.
DuMont, M. "Elements of National Security Strategy." Atlantic Council Strategy Consortium, 2019.
Eisenkot, G., and G. Siboni. Guidelines for Israel’s National Security Strategy. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2019.
Government of Kosovo. Kosovo Security Strategy. 2022.
Kugler, R. K. Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs. Washington: National Defense University Press, 2006.
Law No. 03/L-050. On the Establishment of the Kosovo Security Council. 2008.
Logan, J., and B. Friedman. "The Case for Getting Rid of the National Security Strategy." War on the Rocks, 2022.
Morgenthau, H. J. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. Knopf, 1948.
Welch, A. "Kosovo’s Home-Grown SSR: The Strategic Security Sector Review – Part Two." 2014.
