A critical analysis of the neoliberal state-building in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The gap between aims and achievements

Abstract

Despite the long years of the political, economic, and military presence of the international community, with its remarkable amount of aid, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) still suffers from political instability, a lack of economic growth, and high rates of unemployment. The Dayton Peace Accords (DPA), which were signed in 1995 to end the violent war that involved ethnic cleansing and caused unforgettable humanitarian and economic loss, set up highly decentralized state institutions within a divided society. The DPA’s vision was based on the neoliberal agenda and strongly emphasized the belief that ethnic harmony and sustainable peace would be achieved only through a reconstruction program involving neoliberal policies. Against the backdrop of this vision, the absence of intergroup cohesion among distinct ethnic collective identities remains a puzzle in the neoliberal state-building agenda of the international community. By highlighting the limitations of state-building as applied to its implementation in BiH, this research aims to plausibly specify the root causes of why state-building initiatives remain ill-equipped to create a higher-level shared collective identity in BiH. To this end, it will critically discuss the (in)effectiveness of the Dayton recipe for BiH for building a functional and sovereign state along with the aforementioned higher-level shared collective identity.