Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is home to three large ethnic groups, namely Bosnian Muslims (also referred to as Bosniaks), Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. The country is today composed of two political entities- the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska in addition to the Brcko District which is internationally supervised.

Prior to 1991, the country was one of the six constituent republics of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared sovereignty October 1991 followed by a referendum for independence in early 1992. However the majority of the Bosnian Serbs opposed the new plans for autonomy and boycotted the referendum which ultimately led to a violent struggle between all three ethnic groups. On the one side the Army of Republic of Srpska organised by Serb forces attempted to prevent the independence of the country and later aimed to take control over the Serb populated areas. The Bosnian Croat minority fought to take control over the Croat populated areas and the Bosnian Muslims attempted to defend the territory of the independent state of Bosnia Herzegovina. The result of the conflict was that  over two million people were displaced  and at least 100, 000 people were killed.

The European Union was seen as a primary actor in the conflict resolution process and at the very outbreak of the war attempted to prevent violence by imposing economic sanctions on the former federation. However, deep EU- internal division obstructed common action which undermined Brussels’ ambition to be perceived as an effective actor at the international stage.  After many of the war atrocities being brought to the international community’s attention NATO intervened and launched bombing operations against Bosnian Serb positions in Bosnia. The European Union was further involved in several attempts to end the war such as the Carrington- Cutileiro Peace Plan, the Vance- Owen Peace Plan and later the Owen- Stoltenberg Peace Plan. Each of these suggested a different geographical division along ethnic lines, as well as ethnic power sharing yet all three were rejected by the Bonsiaks. The final end to the conflict came with intense 20 day negotiations, led by the US, where all parties were brought together in Dayton, Ohio which led to the well-known Dayton Agreement.