Balkans in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District: Helen Delich Bentley and the War in Bosnia
Balkans in Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District: Helen Delich Bentley and the War in Bosnia

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the foreign policy activism of a Republican congresswoman of Serbian descent Helen Delich Bentley during the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. The paper will argue that Bentley was a congressional foreign policy entrepreneur utilizing nonlegislative avenues of foreign policy influence. Her policy aims from 1992 until the end of her term in Congress in 1994 were to establish U.S. neutrality and nonintervention in Bosnia. Though unsuccessful on both fronts, Bentley’s foreign policy activism sheds light on the domestic policy debates over the formulation of U.S. policy towards Bosnia. The paper contributes to the literature on interventions in the Balkans and also to literature on congressional foreign policy entrepreneurship.

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