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SerbiaBusinessOverlooked from the right12 days ago

Washington’s Retreat from its Bosnia Policy Leaves Country Adrift

A report by the U.S. State Department to Congress on the Western Balkans emphasizes the reaffirmation of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement and Bosnia's territorial integrity but does not mention the Office of the High Representative (OHR). The report's emphasis on 'empowering local actors' is interpreted as favoring existing strong entities, particularly ethno-nationalist groups in Republika Srpska.

The new State Department report to Congress on the Western Balkans is most revealing in what it omits. It reaffirms the 1995 Dayton peace deal and Bosnia’s territorial integrity yet never once mentions the Office of the High Representative, OHR.

The pledge to empower local actors rather than perpetuate “an overreliance on international intervention or supervision” is, for anyone who has worked on Bosnia, an epitaph for the supervisory era. The harder question is what that era’s end means for the country’s democratic order, and on that the report says nothing.

“Empowering local actors” is not a neutral phrase. It means empowering whichever actors are already strongest, which in Bosnia means the ethno-nationalists, above all in the Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, who have spent more than a decade hollowing the state from within.

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Source document: U.S. State Department Report to Congress on the Western Balkans

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Balkan Insight (BIRN)IndependentLeft12 days ago
Washington’s Retreat from its Bosnia Policy Leaves Country Adrift

A report by the U.S. State Department to Congress on the Western Balkans emphasizes the reaffirmation of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement and Bosnia's territorial integrity but does not mention the Office of the High Representative (OHR). The report's emphasis on 'empowering local actors' is interpreted as favoring existing strong entities, particularly ethno-nationalist groups in Republika Srpska.

Bias read (Left): The article critiques the U.S. policy shift toward reducing international oversight in Bosnia, suggesting it favors existing ethno-nationalist powers, particularly in Republika Srpska. This framing implies concern over potential erosion of democratic institutions and highlights the risks of disengag

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  • government U.S. State Department Report to Congress on the Western Balkans

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  • governmentU.S. State Department Report to Congress on the Western Balkans