Eremin Denis Pavlovich – Junior Researcher, Black Sea and Mediterranean Studies Department, IE RAS
The article examines the foreign policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the signing of the Dayton Accords (1995) to the present. From the author’s point of view, the complex state system created by the Dayton Accords ensured the territorial integrity of post-war BiH in the absence of interethnic consensus. Particular emphasis in the research has been placed on the problem of the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration and the dynamics of the development of BiH’s bilateral relations with Russia. The international community, represented by the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), proceeded from the concept of «institutional peacebuilding», i.e. expected that national contradictions could be overcome through creation of functional state institutions. These expectations were not justified, and the actions of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) did not contribute to national reconciliation but rather aggravated national contradictions, and over time became incompatible with the interests of the peoples of BiH. The process of state reform initiated by the OHR did not take into account the interests of national communities equally, since the OHR directed the development of state-building towards the formation of a unitary political system. Under these circumstances, the collective Presidium, empowered to determine the country’s foreign policy, was unable to formulate an unambiguous position on any significant foreign policy issue, including such issues as the conditions of the country’s membership in the EU, joining NATO, and building relations with Russia. This is explained by the desire of the main political forces of Bosnian Muslims to achieve the centralization of BiH with its simultaneous Euro-Atlantic integration, whereas for the Croatian community it is fundamentally important to defend its position as the constituent people of BiH, and for the Bosnian Serbs, at least, to preserve the powers of the Republika Srpska. For the Serbs of the Balkan region, the solution of the «Serbian issue» proposed by Washington and Brussels is not acceptable, and this fact led to the clashes between the Serbian political forces of BiH and the Bosniak parties on the issue of changing the Dayton status-quo. Under these conditions, there was a gradual development of close ties between Republika Srpska and Russia as the guarantor state of the Dayton Accords. The research has been conducted using materials of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation. The methodological basis of the work is the problem-chronological method observing the principle of historicism.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dayton Accords, foreign policy, European integration, Russia, EU, NATO.
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