The roughly 600 American troops serving in KFOR should continue their mission in Kosovo. That is the position of two American security and defense experts, who warn that their departure could undermine stability in the Balkans and give Moscow a strategic advantage.
The call comes as the Pentagon prepares to review the deployment of US forces in Europe. According to the experts, the American presence in NATO’s mission in Kosovo is one commitment that should not be affected by the review.
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They made their case in an article on an American website specializing in defense. Its authors are Mark Montgomery, a retired US Navy admiral and senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), and Ivana Stradner, a researcher at the same institution. They argue that withdrawing troops from Kosovo would save little money but could have major strategic consequences.
The number of troops in KFOR is small compared with the overall US military presence in Europe, Montgomery and Stradner write. Nevertheless, they say the force plays an important role in protecting the hard-won peace in the Balkans.
The two authors consider a review of US commitments in Europe reasonable, arguing that European allies should take more responsibility for their conventional defense. But KFOR, they say, is a special case: the US role there carries both military and political weight and cannot easily be replaced.
Montgomery and Stradner say the risk of destabilization in the Balkans has not disappeared, despite Russia’s losses in the war in Ukraine. In their assessment, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his efforts to disrupt Europe, while Moscow can stir up tensions in the Balkans at relatively low cost and divert Western attention from Ukraine.
The article describes Serbia as an instrument Russia has long used to influence Kosovo’s stability. The authors cite a 2017 incident in which a Russian-made train set off for Kosovo bearing the provocative inscription “Kosovo is Serbia.”
They also mention the so-called Russian humanitarian center in Serbia, near Kosovo, which is suspected of potentially being used as a Russian intelligence outpost. According to the authors, close ties between the Serbian and Russian intelligence services give Moscow opportunities to make contact with local nationalist groups and use them for provocations.
Another event they recall is the 2023 armed attack in northern Kosovo. Kosovo’s institutions have blamed it on armed groups backed by Serbia. That same year, the Russian foreign minister warned, referring to tensions in Kosovo, that an explosive situation was developing in the heart of Europe.
According to Montgomery and Stradner, the region remains fragile even after recent political developments in Serbia. They mention the October 25 parliamentary elections and uncertainty over the future direction of Belgrade’s foreign policy, noting that political change does not necessarily mean a change in its position toward Kosovo.
In the same context, the authors cite a warning issued in October by the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, who said the situation in Kosovo remained persistently tense and close to escalation.
KFOR was deployed to Kosovo under NATO command in June 1999, after the Alliance’s air campaign against the former Yugoslavia. That campaign was intended to stop violence by the forces of Slobodan Milošević’s regime against Kosovo Albanians, the authors recall.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Serbia, backed by Russia and China, continues not to recognize its statehood. According to the two experts, KFOR’s presence has played a major part in helping Kosovo and Serbia maintain peace since 1999.
Referring to the views of a bipartisan group of US lawmakers, Montgomery and Stradner also describe the mission as a political obstacle to those seeking to incite interethnic violence. They warn that reducing or withdrawing US forces could embolden nationalist agendas in Kosovo and Serbia, as well as separatist ambitions in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The US has been one of KFOR’s mainstays since the mission began and currently leads Regional Command East, a role of direct operational importance. Many of the roughly 600 American troops in Kosovo are members of the US Army National Guard; the contingent represents a relatively small commitment for US capabilities.
According to the article, US troops in KFOR make up less than one percent of all American troops deployed in Europe. For that reason, the authors say a withdrawal would not produce significant savings or substantially change the US military’s ability to carry out other missions around the world.
To explain what the absence of a strong American presence could mean, the two experts compare KFOR with EUFOR Althea, the European Union-led mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to them, EUFOR, with around 1,500 personnel, has struggled in the face of repeated provocations by Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik, who is backed by Moscow and Belgrade.
The authors also mention the decision by EU ambassadors in 2025 not to help enforce an arrest warrant for Dodik because of the political risks an intervention could bring. In their assessment, the absence of a substantial American force and a unified chain of command ready to act has meant that EUFOR has often had to manage crises rather than prevent them.
KFOR, by contrast, has shown that it can quickly increase its capacity when necessary, Montgomery and Stradner write. They point to the attack in Banjska in September 2023, when an armed Serbian group killed Kosovo police officer Afrim Bunjaku and then barricaded itself inside a monastery.
After that incident, NATO increased the number of peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, while Serbia reduced its troop deployment near the border with Kosovo. Those developments, according to the article, helped bring the crisis to an end.
In closing, Montgomery and Stradner urge the Pentagon not to include American troops serving in KFOR in withdrawal plans as it reviews its military presence in Europe. They say a few hundred troops have helped preserve peace in Kosovo for more than a quarter of a century, while their departure would give Russia an opportunity to exploit tensions in the Balkans. Their concluding message is that the Pentagon should recognize this importance and leave the American commitment to KFOR intact.
