Pax Americana

The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Diplomacy from the Washington to the Dayton Peace Agreement (18 March 1994 – 21 November 1995)

Abstract

Using relevant literature and diplomatic sources, the author reflects on the plans and activities of the international community to end the war in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from the Washington to the Dayton Peace Agreement. Special consideration is devoted to those events that had influenced the shift in US policy and caused its more active engagement. The analysis of international diplomacy and attitudes of various countries towards the developments in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointed to the complexity of achieving a peace agreement for which the US had to try out various strategies and seek different solutions. The author pays particular attention to events that had paved the way for a peace agreement, as well as the military and political means that played a key role in achieving peace. Based on the analysis of the provisions and subsequent implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, the author believes that the agreement had ended the war, but did not allow the establishment of a functional state because the ideologies that had caused the war continued to live and deepen the divisions in the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina through propaganda and rhetoric. He believes that re-enabling of normal life in the country requires the removal of these structures and the consequences that they have produced and continue to produce, which is why Bosnia and Herzegovina is still waiting for support for its European path. He claims that this could only work if the democratic settings were to be imposed by the international community, since the project of building the institutions was left unfinished. If the international community consistently supports this, the author believes that the path of accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the modern European societies will be much shorter and much faster.