Bosnia after Dayton: Nationalist Partition and International Intervention / Edition 1

by Sumantra Bose

Overview

Since 1996, Bosnia & Herzegovina has been the site of a remarkable project of political engineering. A complex consortium of international agencies backed by Western governments have been transforming a devastated, ethnically partitioned, post-war territory into a multiethnic, democratic and economically viable state. Despite an enormous investment of personnel and resources, six years later BiHs post-Yugoslav future remains tenuous. Did the engineering project work?

In an era when countries from Somalia to Afghanistan are confronting questions of state legitimacy amidst international intervention, Bosnia after Dayton is a fascinating study in the dilemmas of the post-Cold War international order. How effective are international peace-building interventions in fractured states? Is the preservation of a multinational state desirable—or even possible—where the majority of citizens only reluctantly acknowledge its legitimacy?

Drawing on the authors extensive field experience, this book takes a hard look at the issues that Bosnia continues to face. Juxtaposing big-picture analysis with an intimate knowledge of the region, Bose situates the international community's extensive program of state-building and democratization in BiH since the Dayton Peace Agreement in ‘he context of Bosnia's and the former Yugoslavia's complex historical legacy of coexistence and conflict. Bose tells the gripping story of the divided city of Mostar, and analyzes the institutional structure and process of Dayton Bosnia. He dissects the making of the Dayton peace accords through American-led coercive diplomacy, and provides a constructive critique of international peace-building.

A fascinating study of democratization in a divided society, this book promises to be a landmark in the literatures on former Yugoslavia, and international intervention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195158489
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/12/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sumantra Bose is a member of the comparative politics faculty in the Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). A specialist on conflict and democratization in divided societies, he has published extensively in that field, especially on the Kashmir question and the India-Pakistan conflict.

Editorial Reviews

" There is a dearth of non-patisan analysis of post-war Bosnia, and Bosnia after Dayton fills a ver clear need. This work will be of great interest to all who want to gain understanding of what ethnic conflict really looks like on the ground. It makes a number of important and useful contributions that should be of interest to students of ethnic politics and conflict, comparativists and IR specialists dealing with the issue of partition, specialists of electoral systems and their consequences for political stability. This book contribution to understanding the political realities of present-day Bosnia." Steven Burg, Professor of Politics, Brandeis University, co-author with Paul Shoup of The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina

From the Publisher

Bose (comparative politics, London School of Economics and Political Science) explores the political dimensions of the internally led reconstruction process in the Balkan country since the late-1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. He argues that the post-war experience of Bosnia-Herzegovina is important and relevant for its own sake, but also as a highly visible testing ground for post-Cold War interventions in general and specifically the agendas of Europe, transatlantic security organizations, and development agencies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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