Deep Political Crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How Can the International Community Help Bring Stability?

It has been more than six months since the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and political leaders have shown little initiativein pursuing the dialogue needed for state-level coalition formation. The state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) remains without a government, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina only recently formed a government after the intervention of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Agreement is under duress as a result of recent actions by the president and parliament of the Republika Srpska (RS) to organize a referendum in the RS negating the authority of the Court of BiH, BiH Prosecutors Office, as well as the validity of past decisions by the High Representative implementing aspects of Dayton. This is a serious violation of Dayton, both in terms of rejecting the authorities of the High Representative under Annex 10 of Dayton and in terms of potential future attempts to divide the country.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s High Representative, Valentin Inzko, provided his assessment of the country’s current political conundrums including:

What are the likely implications of the decision by the RS to hold a referendum on the jurisdiction of the state judicial institutions and the validity of decisions by the High Representative?
What are the prospects for formation of a new BiH state government? What impact would a prolongation of the current impasse have?
What role can the Office of the High Representative, the European Union and others play in addressing the current crises?
How should the International Community, including EUFOR, position itself to address threats to stability in the future?

Speaker

Valentin Inzko, Speaker
High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Michael Dziedzic, Moderator
U.S. Institute of Peace