The fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina: an exclusive interview with Wolfgang Petritsch

Article abstract:

The Bosnia war ended not by peace-keeping, nor by war-making, even if a military intervention was required, 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 normalisation were the first aims, Bosnia and Herzegovina is now engaged in a complex transition and integration process. But after 8 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 stabilisation and reconstruction (1995-1997), and a second one of a quasi-protectorate characterised 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 on international power precisely in support of state-building objectives and worked for the Bosnian ownership of a new local institutional environment, which is capable of taking responsibility for the new state. This interview starts with a regional focus, as Wolfgang Petritsch was also Special Envoy of the EU for Kosovo (1998-1999) and later on European Union Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in Rambouillet and Paris (1999).