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1. Federation of Bosnia And Herzegovina – A Parallel Crisis

Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the larger of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities, is in crisis. Disputes among and between Bosniak and Croat leaders and a dysfunctional administrative system have paralysed decision-making, put the entity on the verge of bankruptcy and triggered social unrest. Much focus has been on the conflict that pits the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) against the Federation, but the parallel crisis within the Federation also deserves attention. The need for overhaul of the FBiH has been ignored because of belief that state-wide constitutional reform would solve most of its problems, but any state-level reform seems far off. Bosnia's challenges all have echoes at Federation level, though in simpler form. Reform in the Federation, starting with establishment of a parliamentary commission, is achievable and could give impetus to state-level reform, while improving the livelihoods of the people in Bosnia's larger entity. If it does not happen, Bosnia, which was wracked by three and a half years of war in the 1990s, may well slide toward new political and economic ungovernability.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Economics, Politics, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Balkans

2. Ending Wars and Building Peace

Author:
Charles Call and Elizabeth Cousens
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Ending armed conflict has long been a concern of practitioners and scholars of international relations. Recent years have seen new attention to questions of “building peace” beyond the immediate termination of war, primarily driven by the experience of civil wars in the 1990s and the very mixed record of international involvement—from relative successes like Namibia, Mozambique, and El Salvador through partial successes like Cambodia, Bosnia, and East Timor to abysmal failures like Angola and Rwanda.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Angola, and Namibia

3. Remittances in Conflict and Crises: How Remittances Sustain Livelihoods in War, Crises and Transitions to Peace

Author:
Patricia Weiss Fagen and Micah N. Bump
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Although migrant workers, refugees and immigrants have been sending money, goods and ideas home for millennia, until about a decade ago donors and international finance agencies paid little attention to the phenomenon. Interest has grown exponentially as statistics show what we now call migrant remittances to be among the most important contributing factors to national economies in several countries. Nearly all the countries in the conflict, war-to-peace transition, and crisis categories are highly dependent on remittances. The slow recovery of livelihoods and persistent violence or repression ensure high levels of migration and the need for remittances in such countries for several years after conflict and crises have ended. By all accounts, migrant remittances reduce poverty in important ways in developing countries. Research shows that migrants transfer funds and invest in their countries of origin at times when international investment has all but disappeared. By serving these purposes in countries emerging from or still experiencing conflicts (e.g., Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and others), remittances can be seen as a sine qua non for peace and rebuilding.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, Peace Studies, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Liberia, and Somalia

4. Observations on Local Insurgents and Foreign Fighters in Iraq: an Interview with Mark Edmond Clark

Author:
Mark E. Clark
Publication Date:
05-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
CIAO: There has been considerable discussion lately among analysts of U.S. foreign policy on the insurgency in Iraq. Although you have not dealt with the local insurgents or foreign fighters operating in Iraq, previously you managed to observe up close the preparations made by Serbian nationalist groups in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by Yugoslav military, security services, and Serbian nationalist paramilitary groups in the Kosovo-Metohija province of Serbia for long-term insurgencies against the U.S. and NATO. Using that expertise, and your knowledge of events in Iraq, could you share some thoughts on the insurgency in Iraq?
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Middle East, Arabia, Kosovo, and Serbia

5. Institutionalizing Ethnicity in the Western Balkans: Managing Change in Deeply Divided Societies

Author:
Florian Bieber
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
Ethnic politics continue to dominate political discourse and institutions in the post-conflict regions of former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia). This has rendered these regions dependent on external intervention and blocked or delayed political and economic development, including the process of integration into European and Euroatlantic structures. Some of the post-conflict arrangements have rightfully come under criticism—both from within and outside the region—as obstacles in the normalization of ethnic relations. While the status quo needs revision and a different approach to institutional design is required, this paper argues against abandoning groupbased institutions altogether. Instead, it argues for a more dynamic and processoriented approach to accommodate ever-changing interethnic relations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and War
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia

6. War Economies in a Regional Context: Overcoming the Challenges of Transformation

Author:
Kaysie Studdard
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
This policy report distills key findings from research commissioned by the International Peace Academy's program on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (EACW) on the regional dimensions of war economies and the challenges they pose for peacemaking and peacebuilding. Drawing from analytical research as well as case studies of Afghanistan in Central Asia, Sierra Leone in West Africa, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in Southeast Europe, a number of key issues concerning the political economy of regional war economies and lessons for more effective peacebuilding were identified: The notion that internal conflicts have economic "spill over" or "spill into" effects on neighboring states needs to be extended and deepened. Policymakers should work to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the interstate impacts of civil conflict that gives greater weight to systemic cross-border networks and less to potentially 'one-off' transborder phenomena.
Topic:
Economics, Peace Studies, Regional Cooperation, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Europe, Central Asia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and West Africa

7. Aftermath: Women and Women's Organizations In Postconflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author:
Ross Bankson
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
<p> From 1992 through 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina was embroiled in a brutal war. The origins were rooted in a complex web of power politics, economics, and territorial ambitions in which ethnonationalist propaganda was used to divide and conquer. The result was countrywide devastation. <br /><br /> Two interrelated atrocities became hallmarks of the war: “ethnic cleansing” and the systematic rape of women. Ethnic cleansing was a process whereby towns were “purified” of the other ethnic groups through forced eviction and execution. Rape was used as a means of facilitating this process by instilling fear into the community and forcing out its population. The demographic, social, psychological, and physical chaos caused by these combined strategies is the most horrifying and enduring legacy of the war. </p><blockquote><p> </p> </blockquote><p>  </p><p> </p><p> </p>
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Gender Issues, Human Welfare, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Balkans

8. Preventing Minority Return in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Anatomy of Hate and Fear

Publication Date:
08-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
The 1999 action plan of the Reconstruction and Return Task Force (RRTF) represents the most determined effort yet to implement a policy of mass minority return in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But the signs at mid-season are that the results for 1999 will once again be disappointing.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Eastern Europe

9. Minority Return or Mass Relocation?

Publication Date:
05-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
International organisations working to help displaced Bosnians return to their pre-war homes -- arguably the most important element of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) -- have declared 1998 the “year of minority returns”. Four months into the year, however, there is the distinct possibility that 1998 may instead prove to be the “year of mass relocation”. This need not be the case. The political climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) has shifted in recent months and, despite major setbacks, including in Drvar, minority return success stories are already beginning to emerge. In order to turn the current trickle of minority returns into a steady flow, the lessons of past failures and successes have to be learned.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, Migration, Treaties and Agreements, and War
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Eastern Europe