BY SARAH BENTON LONDON -- The consequences of the war in Kosovo are almost unimaginable. But whatever they turn out to be, one is already clear: the rough fashioning of the 19 members of NATO into a cohesive fighting force.
This, at least, postpones some pressing questions: Can the European Union create an independent fighting force of its own? Can the countries of the EU collaborate on weapons procurement and particularly on the intelligence systems which will be at their center? Will the United States withdraw wholly from its military-strategic engagement in Europe? Will Russia and its wobbly ruble and unstable, leaky nuclear power, be drawn into the confines of the European political economy? In today's world, let alone tomorrow's, can any modern state mobilize and conduct a military action entirely on its own?
For the time being, the members of NATO are hanging together. The world-shaping questions this military alliance creates for the next millennium can be postponed, for the time being. But the demand for a new set of ethical rules governing international relations has crept up to become the most urgent of all.