The Bosnian War was the deadliest in the dissolving Yugoslav Federation. Human rights violations occurred on a massive scale. Almost thirty years after the conflict, the country is still politically weak and ethnically divided. In this essay, I will examine the international community’s involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s post-war reconstruction, with a special emphasis on transitional justice and peacebuilding. My primary argument is that the 2000s protests in various Bosnian cities, which will be discussed in the following sections, demonstrated that international involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina did not result in meaningful improvements because conflict resolution efforts were state-centric and focused on short-term goals. This essay demonstrates how the Bosnia and Herzegovina case study exemplifies the foundational limits of both transitional justice and peacebuilding, highlighting the need for more holistic approaches and greater interaction with local populations.

To provide background for my analysis, I will begin this essay with an overview of the Bosnian War, the Dayton Peace Agreement, and the nature of international involvement in the country. In the following section, I will examine the processes of transitional justice and peacebuilding, as well as their impacts and limitations. In the last section, I will analyse small-scale worker protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2000s to highlight the limits of transitional justice and peacebuilding, as well as my assessment of future possibilities and challenges.

Brief Overview of the Conflict

In January 1992, coinciding with the demise of communism and the emergence of militant nationalism in the 1980s, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) disintegrated (Dragovic Soso, 2008). Mary Kaldor (2013) argued that the Bosnian War was an example of ‘new war’ which is triggered by the rise of a violent nationalism between the impoverished and corrupt elites (new paramilitary foundations) to dominate the remnants of the state. According to Kaldor (2013), nationalism has its foundation in the history and culture of Balkan societies, but it also stems from 1980s economic turmoil, which left vulnerable people accepting ideas about national identity. The international community predominantly shared Kaldor’s view of the conflict. On the other hand, authors such as Kuperman (2022) argue that the reasons for Yugoslavia’s breakup were more complex and numerous than just ethnic tensions and economic downturn, including Yugoslav governments’ nationalist aspirations, secessionist policies, increased Western influence in certain parts of the Federation, and the collapse of communism. During Europe’s deadliest war since World War II, the country was divided into 6 sovereign republics — Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia — and two autonomous Serbian provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo (Kuperman, 2022).

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, was to be the bloodiest of all in the disintegrating Yugoslav Federation. Human rights violations occurred on a large scale, approximately two-thirds of the population was displaced, and between 100,000 and 260,000 people died (Kaldor, 2013). Bosnia and Herzegovina had a shared government mirroring the country’s diverse ethnic composition, with around 43% Bosnian Muslims, 33% Bosnian Serbs, 17% Bosnian Croats, and 7% other nationalities (Kaldor, 2013). Because of the republic’s strategic location, both Serbia and Croatia attempted to exert authority over major portions of its land, leaving a small portion of land for Muslims. In a referendum held in March 1992, 60 percent of Bosnian citizens opted for independence (United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, n.d.). Almost immediately, with the help of the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbia, Bosnian Serbs rebelled, and Bosnian Croats quickly followed (Kaldor, 2013). The conflict turned into a deadly three-way battle over territory, with civilians of all ethnicities becoming victims of atrocious crimes such as rape and violence in detention camps. The biggest atrocity of the conflict occurred in 1995, when forces led by Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic attacked the UN-designated safe zone of Srebrenica (United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, n.d.). During a few days, Serb soldiers killed around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys (United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, n.d.). Because of its horrific consequences, the conflict prompted a massive international effort, including high-level negotiations, assistance by international organisations and NGOs, and widespread media coverage (Kaldor, 2013).

Due to international pressure and a military intervention, the parties in conflict were forced to start negotiating and reaching an agreement on the future course of the Bosnian state. The war ended in 1995, with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA). The accord’s contents are extensive, addressing ordinary sovereign matters such as government and constitution, and serving as a template for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ambitious political reconstruction (Caplan, 2000). The DPA divides Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territory, calls for the parties to negotiate a range of confidence- and security-building measures (CSBMs), sets a multi-tiered form of national political institutions, ensures ethic representation and ethnic consensus in governments, and includes provisions for the establishment of long-term institutions tasked with ensuring the highest level of human rights and freedoms (Caplan, 2000). However, Caplan (2000) notes several structural weaknesses of DPA: its provisions........

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