Bosnien und Herzegowina zwischen Abhängigkeit und Selbstverantwortung
Bosnia and Herzegovina Between Dependency and Own Responsibility

Summary/Abstract: The Bosnian war ended not by peace-keeping, nor by war-making, even if a military intervention was requested, but by political engineering: the creation of the Bosnian-Croat Federation (1994) and the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995). If pacification and normalization were the first aims, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now engaged in a complex transition and integration process. But after seven years of international presence, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still an aid-dependent country, and most aspects of social, political and economic life are now matters of the international protectorate-type intervention. In order to overcome this situation, foreign involvement will remain a prerequisite, but it must absolutely address Bosnian self-government and ownership with an adequate strategy. After a first period of military stabilization and reconstruction (1995-1997), and a second one of a quasi-protectorate characterized by a strong use of the powers of the High Representative (1997-2000), the main challenge of the third period - now under way - is to enable the transition from an international soft-protectorate to a sustainable and sovereign Bosnian state. The former High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch focused internationaI power precisely in support of state-buiIding objectives and works for the Bosnian ownership of a new local institutional environment which is capable of taking responsibility for the new state. This contribution, focusing on democratization and state-building in a developmental perspective, is related to an on-going project on the ownership process in Bosnia and Herzegovina done in close cooperation with Bosnian scholars in Sarajevo.

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