Winning Hearts and Minds in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

  Bosnia and Herzegovina is the country that despite its terribly expensive fifteen-year international reconstruction, it still struggles to identify its future as a functional unitary state. The need for institutional reforms that would change major constitutional provisions entailed in the Dayton Peace Agreement, have provoked a serious diplomatic debacle amongst the three constituent ethnic groups which seem to be promoting different visions for the country's future. This article advocates that Bosnia and Herzegovina's European future is indisputable and for this reason international consistency is crucial as to prevent ethnic radicalism from destabilising an already painstaking Europeanisation process. Accordingly, the existential concerns of all ethnic groups shall be taken into account and be incorporated into a functional last phase of Bosnia and Herzegovina's European integration process.