Kosovo's fate lay in the hands of the “international community.” At the highest level of abstraction, the international community had common goals: forestalling violence and transforming Kosovo into a modern society with interethnic tolerance. Significant differences existed, however, on how this should be done. State interests and ideas for Kosovo's future spanned a wide spectrum.

Some governments, like that of the United States, and some NGOs, like the International Crisis Group (ICG), urged prompt action on Kosovo's final status and were inclined to believe that the only viable final status was independence from Serbia. Other governments, like that of Russia, and many individuals working for NGOs, hoped that Kosovo eventually could be folded back into Serbia. Serbia insisted that the question of final status should be kept open for an indefinite period until Kosovo had made greater progress, especially with respect to reintegrating Kosovo Serbs into Kosovo's political and economic life. Even in the United States divisions existed. Some members of Congress and some voices within the administration questioned whether the United States had sufficient interest in Kosovo to spend political capital or military resources on it. At the beginning of the George W. Bush administration, several of the president's advisers questioned whether the administration should adhere to the Clinton administration's commitment to the Balkans. The growing weight of opinion, however, was that the United States needed to finish what it had started.