LECTURE: Bosnia-Herzegovina since Dayton

Wednesday, October 20 4pm Sassafras Room of IMU

Dr. Sabrina Ramet, Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, co-editor of the Cambridge journal Politics and Religion, and a Senior Associate of the Centre for the Study of Civil War

Bosnia-Herzegovina was admitted to the United Nations in May 1992. Yet the system established, after three-and-a-half years of warfare, by the Dayton Peace Accords is patently dysfunctional. In her talk, Professor Ramet will summarize the basic challenges which Bosnia-Herzegovina has faced -- including establishing the rule of law, promoting the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, and building stable institutions. It is in this last area that progress has been particularly problematic, with each of the three major national groups holding to different visions of the future. Where Bosniaks have tended to hope for a stronger central government and a more unified system of governance, many Bosnian Serbs have tended to hope for eventual union with Serbia, while many Bosnian Croats have hoped for either eventual union with Croatia or a reorganization of the system so as to create a third autonomous unit. As a consequence, Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot be considered a stable state at the present time.

This lecture is sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Democracy, the Department of History, the Department of Political Science, the Department of Geography, and the Russian and East European Institute.