Sustainable peace in the Western Balkans still remains to be desired. Ethnic impatience and nationalistic extremism are still strong and capable of ruining the peace achieved. Further engagement of the International Community is critical to achieving lasting peace. Further development of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) is necessary to make Kosovo a fully functional country and society. Further development of the KSF is also the best guarantee to preserve the peace in Kosovo and the Western Balkans and to ensure that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has reliable partnership in the region. Kosovo's government and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) need to focus more in developing the KSF. The KSF should be engaged immediately in security tasks in particular with the KFOR. The KSF should be developed as a strong defense force which will not threaten any neighboring country, but will have needed capabilities to defend Kosovo and its people. Key lessons identified are that strong KSF is best solution to preserve peace in the region, and that there is a critical need to speed up development of the KSF and NATO support in this process.

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