Divergent Transformation and Centrifugal Peacebuilding: The EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This article problematizes the EU's approach to conflict transformation in its neighbouring countries, with specific reference to Bosnia and Herzegovina. It claims that the way in which the EU engages with domestic elites differs considerably from its engagement with the grassroots – an interaction that is heavily reliant on cooperation with civil society. This in turn produces a process of divergent transformation, creating further cleavages between elites and citizens. Emerging centrifugal processes obstruct the development of a common political platform for the citizens and represent an obstacle to the creation of a social contract in the peacebuilding context. This undermines the possibility of achieving sustainable peace and results in the transformation of past conflict into new conflict.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Oliver Richmond for his constructive comments on this draft. I would also like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Notes

John Paul Lederach, Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Society, Washington DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1997.

Alex Warleigh, ‘“Europeanizing” Civil Society: NGOs as Agents of Political Socialization’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.39, No.4, 2001, pp.619–39.

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Lederach (see n.1 above), pp.94ff.

Thanks to Sonja Grimm for inspiring this question.

Noel Malcolm, Bosnia: A Short History, London: Pan Books, 2002.

Oliver P. Richmond, Annika Björkdahl and Stefanie Kappler, ‘The Emerging EU Peacebuilding Framework: Confirming or Transcending Liberal Peacebuilding?’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol.24, No.3, 2011, pp.449–69.

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Nathalie Tocci, ‘The European Union, Conflict Transformation and Civil Society: A Conceptual Framework’, Working Paper 1, Brighton: MICROCON, 2008.

European Commission, Understanding Enlargement: The European Union's Enlargement Policy, Brussels: European Commission, 2007, p.5.

Council of Europe, ‘Council Decision of 18 February 2008 on the Principles, Priorities and Conditions Contained in the European Partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Repealing Decision 2006/55/EC’, Official Journal, 19 Mar. 2008, pp.18–31.

Johan Galtung, ‘Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means (The Transcend Method): Participants’/Trainers Manual', New York: United Nations, 2000 (at: www.transcend.org/pctrcluj2004/TRANSCEND_manual.pdf).

Lederach (see n.1 above).

Audra Mitchell, ‘Lost in Transformation: Peace and Radical Change in Northern Ireland’, Unpublished PhD thesis, Queen's University, Belfast, 2009.

Ibid., p.25.

Jenny Robinson, ‘Feminism and the Spaces of Transformation’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol.25, No.3, 2000, pp.285–301, 286.

Oliver P. Richmond, The Transformation of Peace, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p.103.

See, OSCE, ‘War Crimes Trials Before the Domestic Courts of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Progress and Obstacles’, Mar. 2005 (at: www.oscebih.org/documents/osce_bih_doc_2010122311024992eng.pdf).

International Crisis Group, ‘Bosnia's Stalled Police Reform: No Progress, No EU’, Europe Report 164, 2005 (at: www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3645&l=1).

Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means, Oslo: Peace Research Institute Oslo, 1996.

Thomas Diez, Stephan Stetter and Mathias Albert, ‘The European Union and Border Conflicts: The Transformative Power of Integration’, International Organization, Vol.60, No.3, 2006, pp. 563–93, 566–7.

Dušan I. Bjelić, ‘Introduction: Blowing Up the “Bridge”’, in Bjelić and Obrad Savić (eds), Balkan as Metaphor: Between Globalization and Fragmentation, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002, pp.1–22, 5.

Richmond et al. (see n.7 above).

Diez et al. (see n.21 above), p.569.

European Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament of 8 May 2001 – The European Union's Role in Promoting Human Rights and Democratisation in Third Countries’, Brussels: European Commission, 2001.

Interview by author in European Commission, DG ELARG, Brussels, 9 Sept. 2010.

Interview by author, Sarajevo, 29 Apr. 2010.

Carrie Manning, ‘Elections and Political Change in Post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Democratization, Vol.11, No.2, 2004, pp.60–86.

Ibid., p.64.

Interview by author with Vladimir Pandurević, Delegation of the EU to BiH, Sarajevo, 22 Mar. 2010.

Council of the European Union, ‘Council Conclusions on Bosnia and Herzegovina’, 3076th Foreign Affairs Council Meeting Brussels, 21 Mar. 2011(at: www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/120066).

Author's focus group meeting with Halid Genjać, Stranka Demokratske Akcije (SDA), Sarajevo, 3 Sept. 2009 and Nermina Zaimović-Uzunović, Socijaldemokratska Partija Bosne i Hercegovine (SDP), Sarajevo, 3 Mar. 2011; author's meeting with Western Balkans and EU representatives, Brussels, May 2011.

Interviews by author with members of the Stranka demokratske akcije (SDA), Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata (SNSD), Hrvatska demokratska zajednica 1990 (HDZ 1990), Socijaldemokratska Partija Bosne i Hercegovine (SDP) and Stranka Bosne i Herzegovine (SBiH), Sarajevo, 13 Mar. 2008, 10 Mar. 2009, 3 Sept. 2009.

Interview by author with adviser, European Union Delegation to BiH, Sarajevo, 3 Mar. 2011.

Ibid.

European Commission, ‘Commission Staff Working Document Bosnia and Herzegovina 2010 Progress Report, Accompanying the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council’, Brussels: European Commission, 2010.

See, European Union, ‘Project Fiche – IPA Programme Civil Society Facility – Horizontal Activities (Technical Assistance, People 2 People Programme, Partnership Actions)’, 2008 (at: ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/ipa/2008/pf_civil_society_facility_final_en.pdf).

International Crisis Group (see n.19 above).

Association Alumni of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies, ‘Towards The White Schengen List: Implementation of the Roadmap on Visa Liberalisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Sarajevo, 2009 (at: www.acips.ba/eng/uploads/research/acips_vize_eng.pdf), p.15.

Interview by the author with Council of the European Union /Western Balkans Unit, Brussels, 9 Sept. 2010.

Jens Narten, ‘Post–Conflict Peacebuilding and Local Ownership: Dynamics of External–Local Interaction in Kosovo under United Nations Administration’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol.2, No.3, 2008, p.375.

Personal conversation, 4 Mar. 2011.

Eric Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction: Inventing Traditions’, in Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp.1–14.

Ibid., p.9.

David Chandler, ‘Democratization in Bosnia: The limits of Civil Society Building Strategies’, Democratization, Vol.5, No.4, 1998, pp.78–102.

Author's interviews (see n.33 above).

Ibid.

Author's interviews with MPs from SNSD, HDZ 1990 and SBiH, Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 13 Mar. 2008.

National Democratic Institute, ‘Public Opinion Poll Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) August 2010’ (at: www.ndi.org/files/NDI_Bosnia_Poll_Report_August_2010.pdf).

UN Development Programme, ‘The Silent Majority Speaks’, Sarajevo, 2008 (at: www.undp.ba/Upload/SC/The%20Silent%20Majority%20Speaks%20Report.pdf).

Roland Kostić, ‘Ambivalent Peace: External Peacebuilding, Threatened Identity and Reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Report 78, Uppsala: Department of Peace and Conflict Research University of Uppsala, 2007.

Meetings documented on the BiH parliament's website (at: www.parlament.ba).

Author's interview with EU Delegation (see n.34 above).

Author's interview with Western Balkans Unit (see n.40 above).

Ibid.

Author's interview with Tobias Flessenkemper, EUPM, Sarajevo, 11 Mar. 2009.

Tobias Flessenkemper, EUPM, Conference on ‘Delivering Just and Durable Peace?’, Sarajevo, 3 Sept. 2009.

Kostić (see n.51 above).

Author's interview with EU Delegation (see n.34 above).

Author's interview with Xavier Oleiro Ogando, EU Delegation to BiH, Sarajevo, 8 Mar. 2010.

Author's interview, Sarajevo, 24 Mar. 2010.

Béatrice Pouligny, ‘Civil Society and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Ambiguities of International Programmes Aimed at Building ‘New’ Societies', Security Dialogue, Vol.36, No.4, 2005, p.495–510.

Sari Hanafi and Linda Tabar, ‘The Emergence of a Palestinian Globalized Elite: Donors, International Organizations and Local NGOs’, Jerusalem: The Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy, 2005.

Islah Jad, ‘NGOs: Between Buzzwords and Social Movements’, Development in Practice, Vol.17, Nos.4/5, 2007, pp.622–29.

Roberto Belloni, ‘Civil Society and Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol.38, No.2, 2001, pp.163–80.

Iavor Rangelov and Marika Theros, ‘Maintaining the Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Coherence and Complementarity of EU Institutions and Civil Society in the Field of Transitional Justice’, Bonn: Working Group on Development and Peace (FriEnt), Nov. 2007, p.15.

European Commission, ‘Commission Communication of 27 January 2006: The Western Balkans on the Road to the EU: Consolidating Stability and Raising Prosperity, COM(2006) 27’, Brussels: European Commission, 2006.

Although admitting that there is no agreed definition of civil society, the Commission promoted a rather broad definition in 2005 with respect to EU candidate countries: ‘Civil society would thus include: the labour-market actors, i.e. the social partners (trade unions and employers federations); organisations representing social and economic players at large (consumer organisations for instance); non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations, i.e. organisations at grassroots level through which citizens participate in local and municipal life (e.g. youth or family associations); religious communities and media’. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, ‘Civil Society Dialogue between the EU and Candidate Countries’, 2005 (at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do?mode=dbl&lang=en&ihmlang=en&lng1=en,de&lng2=de,en,fr,mt,pl,pt,sl,sv,&val=403615:cs&page=).

Author's interview (see n.56 above).

European Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council of 5 March 2008 – Western Balkans: Enhancing the European Perspective, COM(2008) 127’, Brussels: European Commission, 2008.

Author's interview with Milena Nikolić, Youth Centre, Srebrenica, 2 Apr. 2010.

Ibid.

Author's interview with Nebojša Šavija-Valha, Ambrosia, Sarajevo, 23 Mar. 2010.

Author's interview (see n.60 above).

European Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World’, Brussels: European Commission, 2007; Author's interview, Sarajevo, 29 Apr. 2010.

Author's interview with Darko Brkan, Dosta!, Sarajevo, 1 Apr. 2010.

Author's interview with Ingrid Halbritter, Pharos, Sarajevo, 8 Mar. 2009.

Author's interview (see n.73 above).

Ibid.

James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

See Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1958; Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, London: Allen & Unwin, 1967.

The author was present at the choir's rehearsals in March and April 2010.

Author's interview (see n.73 above),

Ibid.

Author's interview with Pierre Courtin, Duplex Gallery, Sarajevo, 23 Apr. 2010.

Author's interview with Srđan Dizdarević, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Sarajevo, 10 Mar. 2008.

Author's interview, Sarajevo, 17 Mar. 2010.

Author's interview with Eleonora Emkić, Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide (Gariwo), Sarajevo, 23 Apr. 2010. See also, the website of the organization (at: www.gariwo.org).

Author's interview with Lejla Somun-Krupalija, Naša Stranka, Sarajevo, 11 Mar. 2010.

See, Naša Stranka, ‘Opći programski principi’ (at: www.nasastranka.ba/bs/programi/opi-programski-principi).

Many thanks to Roger MacGinty and Michael Pugh for making this point.

Author's interview with Predrag Bjelosević, Dijecije Pozorište RS, Banja Luka, 27 Apr. 2010.

Arendt, Human Condition (see n.81 above).

Interview by author with Asja Hafner, Sarajevo Centre for Contemporary Art, Sarajevo, 16 Apr. 2010.

Stefanie Kappler and Oliver P. Richmond, ‘Peacebuilding and Culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Resistance or Emancipation?’, Security Dialogue, Vol.42, No.3, 2011, pp.261–78.

Oliver P. Richmond, A Post-Liberal Peace, New York: Routledge, 2011.

Richmond (see n.17 above).