FRIDE: Leaving Dayton Behind:
Constitutional Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Sofia Sebastián: 02/12/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 02 December 2007 -
Madrid
- More
than a decade on from the Dayton
Peace Agreement, which put in place a system of calculated checks and
balances between three ethnic groups, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) continues to
be mired in political instability and ethnic mistrust.
Nationalist
rhetoric has been on the rise since last year’s elections and state level
institutions remain weak, poisoning the functioning of the state and Bosnia’s
bid for EU membership. While Bosnia’s location on Europe’s doorstep has
provided the country with a unique opportunity for stabilisation and integration
into the EU, moving towards such a goal has
proven problematic.
During
the eighteen months in office of International High Representative and European
Special Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling, little progress was made on
the EU’s two declared priorities, namely the Stability and Association
Agreement (SAA) and police reform.
Only at
the end of October 2007, as this paper was going to press, did six Bosnian
parties sign a much-delayed agreement
on police reform; the European Commission was to judge whether this
agreement sufficed to sign an SAA, averting the risk of BiH becoming the only
country in the region without such an agreement.
This
paper examines the dynamics involved in constitutional reform in BiH since 2005.
It assesses the shortcomings of the prevailing system of “Dayton democracy”,
before outlining the international community’s role in recent attempts to
reform this system.
The
paper explains why the so-called 2006 “April
Package” of constitutional reform failed, and finds that the EU’s rather
hands-off and passive stance was one contributory factor. The implications for
future European policy towards BiH are discussed.
A key
lesson to learn is that in contrast to previous rounds of enlargement, BiH
presents a situation where the state remains contested by different ethnic
groups. This calls for an adjustment of the “enlargement machinery” that
takes full consideration of BiH as a post-conflict country and offers a
framework for political stabilisation tailored to the conditions of the Western
Balkans.
Download
the full version of this publication, in
English
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Bio
author: Sofia Sebastián
Sofia
Sebastian is a PhD candidate in the Government Department at the London School
of Economics (LSE), where she teaches a seminar on democracy and democratization
processes.
The
title of her thesis is 'The Interplay of Domestic and International Actors in
the Process of Political Reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina.' Prior to her PhD
studies, Sofia earned an MSc in Foreign Service with a focus on foreign policy
and international security at Georgetown University under the sponsorship of the
Fulbright Commission. Sofia received her BA in Political Science and
International Relations from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
FRIDE
(Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior)
is a European think-tank based in Madrid that seeks to influence the policies
and actions of state and non-state actors in Europe and elsewhere, with regards
to peace and security, democratisation and human rights, and development and
humanitarian action, through applied research and informed debate based on the
values of justice and equality.
Labels: FRIDE,
Fundación
para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior,
Sofia
Sebastián, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, EU
Foreign Policy, Political
Reform, State
building, Western
Balkans
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