State Building and Democratization in Bosnia and Herzegovina details the post-Dayton evolution of the country over the last two decades. Carefully evaluating the successes and failures the book explores the slow progress of the democratization process and how key elites initially took hold of the state and its institutions and have successfully retained their grip on power, despite heavy international presence and reform attempts to counter-balance this trend. Bosnia and Herzegovina offers a useful lens through which to view international state-building and democratization efforts. International engagement here incorporated significant civilian and military investment and has been ongoing for many years. In each chapter international scholars and field-based practitioners examine the link between post-war events and a structure that effectively embeds ethno-national politics and tensions into the fabric of the country. These contributors offer lessons to be learned, and practices to be avoided whilst considering whether, as state-building and democratization efforts have struggled in this relatively advanced European country, they can succeed in other fragile states.

The Western Balkans have seen rapid changes since the end of the violent conflicts in the 1990s. The EU has been one of the main drivers for change, focusing on the political, economic and social transformation of the region to prepare the countries for membership in the Union. EU enlargement has never before been this complex and inter-connected with processes of state-building and democratization. It can be argued that the EU is actively involved in state-building. By focusing on a number of case-studies, it will be demonstrated how complex the transformation towards independent statehood and modern democratic governance has been (and continues to be) for most Western Balkan states. While some chapters focus explicitly on the role of the EU in these transformative procedures, others discuss the role of outside influences on state-building, democratization and independent governance more implicit. The picture painted is one of multiple and inter-connected alterations that have long-term consequences for the political systems of the region. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalities Papers.

Examines the world of humanitarian aid workers and the processes of democratization that they put into effect in Bosnia-Herzegovina

This study shows the impact of the ICTY on Bosnian society and its role in translating international law in domestic contexts.

Bose (comparative politics, London School of Economics and Political Science) explores the political dimensions of the internally led reconstruction process in the Balkan country since the late-1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. He argues that the post-war experience of Bosnia-Herzegovina is important and relevant for its own sake, but also as a highly visible testing ground for post-Cold War interventions in general and specifically the agendas of Europe, transatlantic security organizations, and development agencies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The book examines the dynamics between domestic and international statebuilding actors. While the dynamics between "local" and "international" statebuilding actors have been previously theorised through concepts such as hybridity and friction, there have been few attempts to develop conceptual tools for the empirical study of statebuilding dynamics. By drawing on a set of concepts and mechanisms developed in the Contentious Politics literature, this book fills this gap. It deploys concepts such as political opportunity structures, mobilizing structures and framing to trace the interactions between domestic and international statebuilding actors in the case of post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis identifies a set of practices operating at various domains of Bosnia’s society—institutional, symbolic and discursive—through which domestic statebuilding actors seek to influence the internationally-driven statebuilding process. Responses by the international statebuilding actors to such activities have often resulted in further contention. The book argues that the dynamics between the different statebuilding actors and agendas in the Bosnian case are characterised not only by conflict and contention but also symbiosis whereby the presence of non-conforming local actors justifies the extension of international mandates while the continued international presence generates further contestation. These observations and the conceptual tools introduced in the book add to our understanding of the often slow and arduous statebuilding processes in post-conflict societies. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, peacebuilding, European politics and international relations in general.

This book critically examines the process of statebuilding by the EU, focusing on its attempts to build Member States in the Western Balkan region. This book analyses the European Union's policies towards, and the impact they have, upon the states of the Western Balkans, and assesses how these affect the nature of EU foreign policy. To this end, it focuses on the tools and mechanisms that the EU employs in its enlargement policy and examines the new instruments of direct intervention (in Bosnia and Kosovo), political coercion (in the case of Croatia and Serbia in relation to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), and stricter conditionality in the Western Balkan countries. The book discusses the key aim of this special form of statebuilding, which is to establish functional liberal-democratic states in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in order for them to join the EU and to cope with the responsibilities and pressures of membership in the future. However, the authors argue that while the EU sees itself as an international actor that promotes and protects liberal-democratic values, norms and principles, its experiences in the Western Balkans demonstrate how the EU ́s actions in the region have undermined the basic principles of democratic decision-making (such as the European support for impositions in Bosnia) and international law (Kosovo), and have consequently contributed to new tensions (see police reform in Bosnia, and the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia) and dependencies. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, EU politics, global governance and IR/Security Studies in general.

An examination of how the constitutional frameworks for autonomies around the world really work.

This book is an introduction to the basics of Bosnian political structure, institutions, and political processes. Twenty-five years after the Dayton Peace Agreement ended the Bosnian war, the political process still maintains various levels and divisions among political entities. A transitional, post-conflict, divided, multicultural, state-building society, Bosnia and Herzegovina represents a complex and unique political system through which a myriad of topics can be studied. Applying multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies, the book presents a descriptive analysis and critical evaluation of the various aspects of the political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The chapters address various aspects of the political system, such as institutions and state building, the legal system and the post-war constitution, as well as an examination of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s place in the international community and their relationship with European Union and NATO. Providing a holistic view of the development, politics, and policy of this unique state, this book will be ideal for students studying the contemporary history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as students and researchers of political science, international relations, and development.

This innovative Handbook offers a new perspective on the cutting-edge conceptual advances that have shaped – and continue to shape – the field of intervention and statebuilding.