Next week Kosovo will celebrate its one year independence anniversary as the seventh state to emerge out of the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo is a tiny Albanian enclave in Serbia which captured world headlines in the 1990s when Serbian dictator Milosevic launched a campaign of ethnic genocide and cleansing of the Albanians. The international community, the civilized part of it anyway, came to the defense of Kosovo and destroyed the Serbian army.

The United States lead the NATO-effort in support of Kosovo and the United States till this day remains Kosovo’s main ally. In fact, where is not for consistent U.S. support for Kosovo, declaring independence would have been an impossibility for the new-found republic.

The United States was also the first nation to recognize a free Kosovo. To date, although only 54 nations have so far recognized Kosovo, the balance nevertheless is in Kosovo’s favor due to the fact that the Western world has embraced Kosovo - with minor exceptions - and the new EU-aspiring government in Belgrade knows it cannot continue to seek to obstruct Kosovo and have any chance of every entering the European Union.

As The Economist notes, although the Serbian government has not sought to interfere in Kosovo, it has launched a racist campaign against Kosovo attempted to portray it as some drug-infested nation.

” Serbia’s government has led a highly effective diplomatic campaign against it and Kosovo has a bad image abroad. Yet it is often unfairly singled out for blame. It lies on a main drug-trafficking route, for instance; but so do some EU members, such as Bulgaria and even Austria.

It is widely believed that Albanians, including Kosovars, play an inordinately large role in Europe’s drug cartels, but research does not often bear this out. According to a report by the Kosovar Stability Initiative, a think-tank, in 2006 only 6% of those arrested for heroin smuggling in Italy were ethnic Albanians; 65% were Italians and 19% were north Africans. Some stereotypes widely believed and repeated about Kosovars abroad are merely racist.”

Although Kosovo remains a poor country and its administration is weak - EULEX and 15,000 NATO forces handle a lot of administrative duties - the nation is still “Confounding the sceptics” as it moves on to remain independent and hopefully become prosperous.

As Kosovo turns one, they are a lot of bitter people wishing malice for the newest democracy. But the Kosovars are having not of it and allowing no one to even try to bring them down.

“A recent survey by the European Fund for the Balkans and Gallup found that, among seven western Balkan countries, Kosovo’s people are the most satisfied. They will certainly enjoy their birthday.”

A final note: Why isn’t there a Kosovo country listing. I didn’t want to put this under Serbia, but had to for lack of option. Gte moving on it IB, after all the world’s superpower recognizes Kosovo, shouldn’t you?