ABSTRACT
As Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) recovers from the devastating civil conflict of the early 1990s, the country is continuing to establish itself as a member of the international community. The collapse, in 1991, of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) triggered disputes over territory and sovereignty— ultimately leading to a civil war that split BiH along ethnic lines. The region’s infrastructure and economy were devastated as various ethnic groups fought to control portions of the former SFRY. The war in BiH came to a close in December 1995, with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, 1 which divided the country into two individual political units, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federation of BiH) and the Republic of Srpska, 2 and a third small district— the Brčko District, an independently governed, multiethnic territory that links the two units and technically belongs to both. The agreement also included the constitution of BiH, which explicitly assigned exclusive rights and responsibilities (referred to as “competencies”) to the state and to its political units. 3
