The war that drove the Serbian forces of Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo seven years ago is not much remembered today, but the nation-building mission international actors have undertaken in that breakaway region of Serbia is now approaching a fateful turning point.

Getting Kosovo’s future right is crucial for stability in the Balkans. What happens to Kosovo may also influence ethnic minorities in multi-ethnic states such as Russia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka who form a majority in one region and want to secede and become a majority in a new independent state.

The UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, is poised to present a proposal on the region’s final status that is likely to leave maximalists among both Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and its Serb minority dissatisfied. Even the timing of Ahtisaari’s presentation is controversial, with some EU representatives wanting to delay it until after elections in Serbia that are expected before the end of the year.

The logic of such a delay is politically sound. It assumes that even a protracted UN-backed process leading to some form of independence for Kosovo will provoke voters in Serbia to support hardline nationalists. The 1999 war to liberate Kosovo can be counted a success only if the post-war work of nation-building is done right.