Introduction

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s three and a half year war dominated global headlines in the first half of the 1990s. Since the Dayton Peace Accords and the presence of international peacekeepers in the country, Bosnia has disappeared from the headlines-with the exception of occasional reports on the arrests of war criminals and the ongoing tenure of nationalist political leaders, reaffirmed by elections. However, Bosnia has been the site of a paradigmatic experiment in reconstructing a multiethnic society with the financial and logistical support of the ‘international community.’ The war and the mixed record of reconstruction have triggered further scholarly debate on the viability of multiethnic states in general. This volume examines this undertaking at a variety of angles and seeks to highlight challenges to the endeavor.