During the medieval period, Kosovo served as the center of a Serbian Empire. The defeat of Serbian forces by the Turkish military at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 ushered in a period of five centuries of rule under the Ottoman Empire. During this period, large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to and settled in Kosovo. By the end of the 19 th century, Albanians replaced Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo, although a large ethnic Serb majority remained in an area north of the Ibar River and in a few other parts of Kosovo. Serbia regained control over the region from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War of 1912. Kosovo was then incorporated into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later named Yugoslavia) after World War I. After World War II, Kosovo's present-day boundaries were established when Kosovo became an autonomous province of Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During the 1980s, as Albanian nationalism increased in Kosovo, protests and calls for Kosovo's independence occurred more frequently. The Serbs—many of whom viewed Kosovo as their cultural and religious heartland—responded in 1989 by instituting a new constitution revoking Kosovo's autonomous status and setting off years of political unrest. By 1998, following the breakup of Yugoslavia, growing ethnic unrest and violence in Kosovo, promoted by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), led Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to launch a counterinsurgency campaign against the ethnic Albanian and Kosovar communities in Kosovo. After international attempts to mediate the conflict failed, a three-month military operation led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was launched in March 1999 against Serb forces in Kosovo and against Serbia itself. The NATO operation ultimately forced the Serbs to agree to withdraw their military and police forces from Kosovo. A U.N. Security Council Resolution adopted in 1999 placed Kosovo under a U.N. Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), pending a determination of Kosovo's future status. A NATO-led military force in Kosovo (KFOR) was also established to provide security. U.N.-led negotiations on the future of Kosovo began in late 2005 but ended in late 2007 without agreement between Belgrade and Kosovo leaders in Pristina. In February 2008, over the objections of Serbia and the Serb minority in Kosovo, Kosovo's leaders declared independence from Serbia. Serbia won an important diplomatic victory when the U.N. General Assembly voted in October 2008 to refer the question of the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). However, Serbia's diplomatic strategy suffered a setback when the ICJ ruled in July 2010 that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not contravene international law. Today, Kosovo is recognized by over 110 countries worldwide, including the United States. However, Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence, as have Russia, China, and several EU countries. Nevertheless, Kosovo joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 2009, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 2012, and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) in 2013. Kosovo most recently joined the Council of Europe's Venice Commission and the International Olympic Committee in 2014. Despite celebrating its 10 th anniversary of independence in February 2018 and having made, according to many, significant political and economic progress, Pristina does not yet enjoy all of the benefits of an independent, sovereign country, and Kosovo remains heavily overseen by international organizations. For instance, Serbia's refusal to recognize Kosovo's independence has resulted in an unresolved border between the two. In addition, a large swath of territory in northern Kosovo dominated by ethnic Serbs as well as other Serb communities in Kosovo have not been fully integrated into Kosovo and have demanded autonomy from Pristina on a number of issues. They also demand continued direct links to Belgrade. A 400-member U.N. mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continues to be deployed to Kosovo. Its mission is to promote local security, stability, and the protection of human rights in Kosovo and the region and to promote constructive engagement between Pristina and Belgrade, the Serb and Kosovar communities in northern Kosovo, and between regional and international actors with interests in Kosovo. The European Union's rule-of-law mission (EULEX) has operated in Kosovo under the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) since 2008. The mission was recently downsized and now, according to the EU, will no longer have executive authorities but will continue to support relevant rule-of-law institutions in Kosovo on their path toward increased effectiveness, sustainability, multiethnicity, and accountability, free from political interference and in full compliance with EU best practices. The mission will monitor selected cases and trials in Kosovo's criminal and civil justice institutions and will continue monitoring, mentoring, and advising the Kosovo Correctional Service. International prosecutors and judges still ensure equity in Kosovo's courts and the potential prosecution of Kosovo citizens. A new special court located in The Hague will hear cases of Kosovo citizens who served as members of the then-Kosovo Liberation Army during the conflict years, accused of alleged war crimes. KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, has the role of ensuring Kosovo's overall security. KFOR also plays the leading role in overseeing the training of the 2,500-personnel Kosovo Security Force (KSF, which is not considered a Kosovo military). In July 2018, approximately 4,000 troops from 28 countries were contributing to the KFOR mission, including about 685 from the United States, approximately 540 from Italy, and 450 from Austria. A Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) was established in 1992 to facilitate trade and promote economic development among the many Central and Eastern European countries and the Balkan countries. CEFTA today includes Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia. Kosovo was permitted to join in 2007, but, as a result of Serb objections, Kosovo's interests are represented by UNMIK. The president of Kosovo, currently Hashim Thaçi of the centrist Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), serves as the head of state. During the 1998-1999 conflict with Serbia, Thaçi served as the political leader of the KLA. He is a long-time political figure in Kosovo and has also served as deputy prime minister. The president of Kosovo represents the country abroad and also nominates a prime minister to lead the government, generally the candidate from the party or coalition that holds the largest number of seats in the parliament. The candidate for prime minister must then be approved by a vote of the unicameral parliament (Assembly). The government of Kosovo is headed by a prime minister and a Cabinet. In June 2017, national elections were held after the previous government lost a vote of confidence in the Assembly. A three-party coalition referred to as the PAN, composed of the PDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), and the Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA), won the most seats in the 120-seat Assembly. The PAN coalition parties reached an agreement in which the PDK nominated Kadri Veseli for speaker and the AAK nominated its leader, Ramush Haradinaj, for prime minister. After serving briefly as prime minister in 2004, Haradinaj resigned his office and turned himself in to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), established in 1993 in The Hague, Netherlands, to face war crimes charges; Haradinaj was subsequently cleared twice by the ICTY. Although the PAN coalition won 39 seats, it did not have enough to form a government, which required the PAN to enter into negotiations with other parties to reach a majority. A three-month deadlock over forming a government was broken on September 4, 2017, when the New Alliance for Kosovo party, led by Behgjet Pacolli, ended its partnership with the Liberal Democratic Party of Kosovo (LDK) and agreed to join with the PAN to form a government. On September 7, the Assembly elected Kadri Veseli as speaker with 62 votes. President Thaçi then gave Haradinaj the mandate to form a government. On September 9, Haradinaj was narrowly elected prime minister with 61 votes in the Assembly, including 9 from the Serb-dominated Srpska Lista party, despite its serious concerns over Haradinaj leading the government. Srpska Lista was given three ministry posts in the new government. Behgjet Pacolli was subsequently named deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Vetevendosje, the ultranationalist party, won 32 seats in the election becoming the single largest party in the Assembly and the second-largest political group in the parliament, after the PAN coalition. Vetevendosje opposed both candidates for speaker and prime minister. Vetevendosje and the LDK, now in the opposition, claimed the new government would be overdependent on Serbia, owing to the fact that Kosovo's ethnic Albanian parties were not able to form a majority by themselves and needed the votes of the Serb minority. Ironically, the Srpska Lista was criticized by opposition nationalist groups in Serbia for handing the Kosovo government over to Haradinaj, whom many in Serbia consider to be a war criminal. The decision by the Srpska Lista members of the Kosovo Assembly to support the election of Veseli and Haradinaj was seen by some as a calculated decision likely supported by Serb President Aleksandar Vučić in order to strengthen the position of Kosovo's Serb minorities in Belgrade's dealings with the new government in Pristina.