The Emerging US-Albanian Relations and Kosovo Issue
ARB?R HADRI, PhD

Abstract
US policy toward Southeast Europe, Albanian-Kosovo issue has been a reflection of an American political isolation at the beginning of the XX Century. The shift in the role of USA in World international relation with the engagement in First World War and the approval of the Presidents Wilson Fourteen Point as a base for the World peace program at the Paris Peace Conference, has shifted the involvement of the US foreign policy to a more active one, especially towards the balance of Italian expansionism in the Adriatic sea and the right to self-determination of the emerging countries, Albania and Yugoslavia. Albania, bordering Adriatic Sea, and as a new country in a process of reconstitution of her statehood in the Paris Peace Conference, have been a part of political arena and divergences of Great Powers throughout the Conference. The Kosovo issue on these not favorable circumstances for Albanian question has been overlooked by the Conference and has been postponed for future deliberations. As part of the Adriatic issue at the Conference, Albanian issue have gained the support of the only world power the United States and the favorable position of the President Wilson regarding the existence and reconstitution of the state of Albania and the halt of its territorial division. This American shield has been proven at the Paris Conference as essential to these new emerging states, the right to self-determination and the non-support for the secret agreements, as was the London Treaty that proclaimed the division of Albania in three parts between neighboring countries Italy, Greece and Serbia. Even though this concept and treaty was supported by other great powers as France, Italy and Great Britain, US foreign policy and President Wilson position on these issues and Albania was unyielding and essential for the reinstatement of Albanian state on the borders of 1913, the other emerging states on Adriatic sphere and the managing of Italian expansion in Balkans. American-Albanian relations in making in Paris Peace Conference have been e milestone and a prospect on future affiliation regarding the Albanian and Kosovo issue.

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