To an outsider looking in, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the perpetual victim of a war that tore the country apart in the 1990s. In their new book, Bosnian professors Jasmin Hasić and Dženeta Karabegović are challenging that narrative, both in other people’s minds and in their own.
Hasić and Karabegović grew up internalizing the preconception that BiH was a post-conflict, helpless “patient case,” and the writers often had to “self-police” themselves and the contributing academics. The book project was a fight against a 25-year-old version of history that portrayed their country as weak and unable to participate in international affairs.
At a book presentation at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, the two Bosnian editors explained that they conceived this book project, published by Palgrave Macmillan in March, to expand on Bosnia’s post-war foreign policy, and how the country has moved toward greater participation in international bodies, most recently beginning discussions about joining the EU and NATO.
Tanya Domi, the moderator for the event, lived in BiH after the signing of the Dayton peace agreement, which divided the country between Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs. Domi worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, also known as the OSCE mission, which helped implement the peace treaty within the government. She said that this book finally gives BiH the recognition that the country has agency and that it has been “punching above its weight” for many years.
Along with the introduction, Hasić and Karabegović wrote a chapter that deals with the tenuous relationship with Bosnian diaspora and state policies. Other academics and experts in the region contributed to the other chapters, including the moderator, Domi.
Not only is the country facing obstacles such as the NATO and its EU questions, Hasić and Karabegović explained, the country’s foreign policy is complex and fragmented, with disagreements occurring even at the city and town level. The country also has yet to form a new government based on the results of an election that happened nearly a year ago, meanwhile, young people are leaving BiH in waves, looking for better jobs and education. Yet Hasić and Karabegović remain hopeful for the country’s future.
The editors want to translate the book into the local languages of BiH so that it will be more easily accessible to non-English speakers. Hasić said that it is already being integrated into university curriculums in Sarajevo.
Said Karabegović, “Having a course, at least on the undergraduate level, is sort of our first step, our initial contribution.”
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