The minimum you must know

Bosnia and Herzegovina desperately needed peace from 1992 to 1995, when conflict culminated in great losses of human life in Srebrenica. However, the country has been peaceful internally and at peace with all other nations ever since.

The international community remains understandably sensitive to the nation’s internal security cohesiveness and stability. Bosnia and Herzegovina have been steadily achieving greater international legitimacy by looking more and more like every other state. But the current government clearly wants to seem to stand for freedom and democracy to the rest of the world. The government seeks to position Bosnia and Herzegovenia for global acceptance as a result.

Bosnia and Herzegovina are likely to be invited to join the European Union open marketplace eventually. But EU security competitors would prefer the nation stay independent of NATO. There’s very little strategic importance to how Bosnia and Herzegovina align themselves, because it’s separated by an ocean from Europe and by great land distance from Russia and China. But the country surfaces in geopolitical conversations from time to time anyway, such as at the United Nations. All sides want peace and stability for the country, and for Bosnia and Herzegovina to participate in the global economy. Perhaps an open trading relationship with all sides - and no security alignment - could some day be agreed upon as a result.

The former head of state Šefik Džaferović (shown above) insisted Bosnia and Herzegovina be invited to join the EU and NATO. That position met with consternation from EU security competitors and emotional division internally. That may be why the invitation wasn’t received during his administration. The civil conflict in the 1990s makes everyone wary of disunity.