ABSTRACT
The Bosnian conflict illustrates in a tragic way the relationship between security and the problem of minorities. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a clear historical and territorial identity which has turned into national distinctions. The difference was in the existence of established nation states of Serbs and Croats next to Bosnia. They galvanised their kinsmen in Bosnia for over one and a half centuries, in a process that finally led to the Bosnian war of 1992–95. The civil war and the creation of new political and territorial units further separated the three segments of Bosnian society. Republika Srpska and the Croatian entity Herceg-Bosna were established with a vision to merge with the mother nation states in Serbia and Croatia. The United States-sponsored Dayton peace process made clear the opposition between two visions on the prospects for a unified Bosnian state. Under the Dayton accords Bosnia and Herzegovina was to become a dual state, consisting of the Muslim-Croat federation and Republika Srpska.
