Prishtina, Kosovo

SOME OF THE FRESHEST and most distinctive voices of “new Europe”–Donald Rumsfeld’s term for the former-Communist states that have joined the reunited continent as ardent supporters of capitalism, democracy, and other conservative values–are sounding off in a place so new, in its own way, that less than a decade ago most Americans had never heard of it: Kosovo.

Isolated by the Albanian language, an ancient Indo-European tongue with no obvious relatives, as well as by the long-standing hostility of their rapacious neighbors, the Kosovars have preserved much in their culture that is old and valuable. But young Kosovar Albanian intellectuals and civil society activists are aware they have a lot of catching up to do. And they are eager to get the process in motion.