Performative Security Diplomacy: Kosova and the Risks of Strategic Overreach

This article examines the foreign-policy paradox of Kosova’s parliamentary approval to commit troops to the proposed International Stabilization Force in Gaza. As a small, partially recognized state that remains funda-mentally dependent on external security guarantees (KFOR) domestically, Kosova’s external military activism presents a structural puzzle. Drawing on role theory and the concept of performed sovereignty, the article ar-gues that Kosova’s commitment functions as a form of symbolic external projection rather than evidence of consolidated strategic maturity. By joining a high-visibility, US-backed coalition, Kosova seeks to perform the role of a reliable security provider, aiming to accrue diplomatic capital and signal sovereign normalcy to West-ern patrons. A brief comparison with Albania highlights that while both states use crisis participation for dip-lomatic signalling, Kosova’s projection is uniquely compensatory and premature. The article concludes that this performative security diplomacy risks strategic overreach; when symbolic ambition outpaces domestic in-stitutional consolidation, high-visibility external projection threatens to expose the very dependencies the state seeks to obscure.