Institute for Social and Political Research

Contact Information

• Where – Bosnia and Herzegovina (The Balkans, Europe)
• Website – www.idpi.ba
• Contact Person – Dražen Pehar
• Email – dr_pehar@yahoo.com
• Address – Kralja Petra Krešimira IV. b.b. (SPC RONDO), 88000, Mostar
• Other – info@idpi.ba

Areas of Expertise

The Institute for Social and Political Research (Institut za društveno-politička istraživanja) has expertise in a range of areas, including:

• Policy-Making and Research

Main Aims and Objectives

The Institute for Social and Political Research (IDPI) is a politically independent centre for advancing and developing expertise in the field of state organisation and governance. IDPI aims to contribute to the development of a democratic, multicultural and prosperous society in Bosnia-Herzegovina and its immediate neighbourhood, based on the rule of law, individual and collective freedoms, an efficient economy, and also based on European values of compromise, co-existence, peace and democracy. The Institute aims to achieve this through expert analysis and research, and by networking with similar organizations/institutes.

Upholding the Principles of Conflict Transformation

IDPI’s work is primarily on conflict: the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina is often taken as a springboard for analysis. IDPI aims to promote the values of public argumentation and free exchange of opinion, and to work on problematising the approach by the international community to the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina taken thus far. The key principles to which IDPI subscribes are a focus on truth as a part of the process of reconciliation, and the demand to work actively on listening to the ‘other’ side and being able effectively to communicate with them. IDPI also believes that a creative and consensus-driven approach to conflict is much more promising than any interventionist driven alternative.

Where and with Whom

IDPI works primarily in Mostar. Thus far IDPI does not have an official networking scheme; however, it is able to disseminate its ideas through leading Bosnia and Herzegovina dailies and news-portals. IDPI also informally provides advice to some high-ranked BiH Croat officials and Croatian EU parliamentarians, and also partakes in some political educational activities in Mostar.

Main Activities in the Field of Conflict Transformation

IDPI is conducting a wide scope of activities, including scientific research, consulting, policy analyses and recommendations dedicated to particular topics in the field of public institutions’ functioning and coordination. Special attention is paid to applied empirically-based research, results of which are contributing to good governance. In accordance with the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs public affirmation of the ideas of federalism, decentralisation and conflict management, one of the main IDPI’s features is the approach towards those issues from an affirmative international comparative prospective, with the main goal to improve social and political relations and structures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Aside from research of the basic principles of federalism and decentralisation and their role in the conflict resolution, IDPI’s goal is also to offer experts and the wider public insights into relevant and recent contemporary practices in the field of federalist models’ application aimed at resolving conflicts and transforming states and societies. Such an approach was chosen because the contemporary world is faced with numerous violent conflicts, most of them within a particular state’s borders, and with two-thirds of them without a clear winner and with some form of international mediation. Those facts and existence of federalism and decentralisation as a powerful tools for achieving the long-term preservation of peace motivated IDPI to strategically direct its interests to the issues of federalism, decentralisation and post-war governance. IDPI is deeply-devoted to the extraordinary conceptual, theoretical and practical importance of federalism as an organisational conception highly relevant for providing efficient responses to numerous challenges of the social and political reality in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

IDPI is active in the following specific areas:

• Theory and Practice of Federalism
• Conflict Prevention, Conflict Management and Conflict Resolution
• Protection of the Minorities
• Europeanisation/Globalisation
• Government and Governance Models
• Public Administration
• Horizontal/vertical cooperation and coordination
• Cross-Border Cooperation
• Resources Management