Introduction

The Bosnian peace process has transformed a bloody conflict into a cold

peace, creating the conditions for the attenuation of historical ethnic and

national rivalries. Yet, political antagonism between Muslims (often identi-

fied with the religiously neutral term Bosniak), Serbs and Croats remains

severe. Bosniaks continue to see the strengthening of the central Bosnian

state as their main political goal. Many Serbs and Croats prefer wide local autonomies and the development of further ties with neighbouring Serbia

and Croatia respectively. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) aimed

to manage such tensions by preserving the territorial integrity of the state

while endorsing the internal separation of the three main groups into two

semi-independent entities: the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Serb

Republic (Republika Srpska – RS). It was a settlement designed to end

three and a half years of the most brutal conflict on European soil since the

end of World War II. A massive international military and civilian presence was deployed to

secure the peace. From early 1996, Bosnia has been the theatre of one of the

most complex and large-scale peace operations ever undertaken. At the

outset, the primary aim of international intervention was to avoid the out-

break of a new war. To this end, international agencies endorsed the need to

separate the parties physically in ethnically homogeneous enclaves and limit

the frequency of contact among them. They endorsed the view that Bos-

nians of different ethnic and national groups should be kept entirely separate and each group left to govern autonomously its own political, social

and economic life. This minimalist goal soon proved unsustainable, forcing

international agencies to get involved increasingly in Bosnian affairs to

remove obstructive politicians, arrest indicted war criminals, defend indivi-

dual human rights, support civil society and promote economic develop-

ment and regional cooperation. These broader goals required an intrusive

and assertive international presence. Since late 1997, international interven-

tion gradually evolved from a strategy of providing assistance to the local parties to a de facto protectorate.