Temperance in the Arab Spring – averting catastrophe through great power politics
The world’s most politically volatile region, the Middle East, has been stabilised through the collective common sense of three Great Powers – the United States,... Read More
Syria disfigured – options for the West
To understand what a militarily-inspired democratic transplant might achieve in Syria, one might look at what happened when the Iraqi Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein... Read More
Egypt’s democratic phantasm
If Egypt now falls into a period of extended civil conflict, this will not be a new phenomenon driven by recently discovered popular democratic impulses.... Read More
Tales from Herzeg-Bosna – the trial of the Prlic defendants
By highlighting again the atrocities of the war in Herzeg-Bosna, and by pinning liability for grave crimes upon some of that war’s leaders, the Hague... Read More
Bosnian Serb secession – could it ever happen?
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political geography creates a perpetual propensity for the country to spin apart, and at the current time nobody has a realistic plan... Read More
International criminal law – justice or mirage?
It is indefensible to ignore the debate on international criminal law, all the more when the pretext for doing so involves relying upon the misery... Read More
Bosnia’s ragged demise
With international interest in the country having dissolved, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s politicians can now start pulling apart the political architecture imposed by the US Government at Dayton, bringing the state ever closer to irretrievable collapse.
Reflections on the siege of Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina's ethno-nationalist politicians are the product of ethno-nationalist self-partition on the part of three groups of people, all of whom have been scarred by their wartime experiences.
War crimes and proconsulship in the Balkans
The logic of contemporary post-war intervention and proconsulship in both Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina is impossible to divorce from concepts of collective national guilt.
Waiting for Godot in Dodik’s Bosnia
By appealing to the notion of inter-ethnic rotation of senior government positions, Milorad Dodik has exploited and widened divisions between the Bosniaks and Croats, thereby further stymieing the formation of a state-level government.
Kosovo – the politics of partition
Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, recently executed a dangerous gamble in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo by seizing the border posts between the region and Serbia. His actions illustrate the changing balance of power between Americans and Europeans in the region, and the important role of Serbia’s primary opposition party in resolving the Kosovo conflict.
The silent passing of Bosnian proconsulship
By lifting the OHR's remaining bans, Valentin Inzko has quietly conceded that the OHR no longer has the moral authority to dismiss people from public office or to punish them by international decree, thereby marking a profound change in the international community's attitudes towards Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Milorad Dodik and the politics of referendum
Through threats and cajolements, Dodik is proving remarkably adept
Ante Gotovina and the politics of international justice
In light of the ICTY’s verdict finding two Croatian military leaders, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, guilty of war crimes, all the evidence points to Operation Storm being sanctioned in the fullest degree by the international community.
The Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina faces "inevitable collapse"
An interview with Matthew Parish, the former Chief Legal Adviser to the International Supervisor of Brčko, on the current political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the challenges surrounding government formation and the Republika Srpska's proposed referendum on the Court and Prosecutor’s Office.
Croat crisis pushes Bosnia towards endgame
The inability of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s political system to represent Croat interests will bring the stricken country to its knees – and provide useful cover for the Bosnian Serb leader’s plans.
Dodik’s next move – squeezing Brcko dry
With VAT the biggest single source of government revenue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) will be the next target of Milorad Dodik's agenda to weaken state institutions.
Bosnia – the unfortunate case of Dragomir Andan
The case of Dragomir Andan - who was, until recently, on hunger strike outside the OHR's regional office in Banja Luka, in protest against his dismissal three years ago - demonstrates the extent to which the OHR has subverted the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Republika Srpska – after independence
Bosnia's war ended with a partition plan, which the international community subsequently used all its efforts to undermine and create a unified state. Now the west's power in the country has receded, the natural logic of the Dayton Peace Accords has reemerged, and the country is likely to break apart. This article suggests that now the international community's best response to the imminent Bosnian fracture may be to reluctantly accept it.
