Two years of talks over Kosovo's future have ended in failure. As a result, the province is expected to soon declare independence from Serbia – over loud Serb and Russian objections, and amid concern of renewed violence in the Balkans. But there is less cause for alarm than appears.

One reason is the passage of time. The pending loss of Kosovo will bring howls from Serbia, which considers the province of mostly ethnic Albanians to be the cradle of Serb civilization. But Serbia has not been able to exercise authority over Kosovo since 1999, when NATO's air war freed it from a harsh Serb crackdown on Albanian dissent. Since then, Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations, its security guaranteed by thousands of NATO forces.