The 28th session of the European Security Forum, on 11 February 2008, was timed one week before the expected declaration of independence by the government of Kosovo. The widespread expectation is that the US and a progressive cascade of EU member states will recognise Kosovo, and that the EU will go ahead with a major ‘rule of law’ mission there without further UN resolution (arguing that the wording of the existing Resolution 1244 is sufficiently elastic to authorise this action). It is further expected that one or more EU member states (such as Cyprus) will oppose recognition, but will not prevent this mission from being launched. The seminar was served with four excellent papers, each focusing on a different aspect: by Bruno Coppieters, Free University of Brussels; Gerald Knaus, European Stability Initiative; Janusz Bugajski, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. and Dmitri Trenin, Moscow Carnegie Center.