Democratic Ends of Democratic Means: Peace Implementation Strategies and International Intervention Options in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Since the end of the Cold War, international intervention efforts aimed at supporting democratic transition and post-conflict state-building have increased. These efforts have revealed the many challenges involved in these complex endeavors, and have also led to questions concerning the appropriate role of external actors in the peace implementation and democratization processes of sovereign states.
This dissertation examines two peace implementation and democratization strategies employed in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in order to consider the question: Are democratic means necessary and effective in the pursuit of democratic ends? In BiH generally, the international approach to peace implementation has been based on support for elections in order to establish legitimate domestic structures that could drive the post¬war peace implementation and reform process. As this approach failed to achieve the results desired by the international community, a "semi-protectorate" gradually emerged to fill the gap. In the District of Brcko within BiH, an international transitional authority was established to allow direct executive authority in peace implementation and reform.
These two approaches are reviewed in light of the reform processes employed, the results of reform to date, and a review of public opinion data on reform, post-war satisfaction and confidence in the post-Dayton state. Some interesting trends are identified. While there is broad international agreement that reforms have been implemented more quickly and successfully in Brcko than in the rest of the country, public satisfaction with reform is not substantially higher in the District. However, on important issues related to identity, support for a multiethnic future and the sense of belonging to BiH or "stateness," respondents in Brcko tend to be more moderate than BiH citizens in general, with the important exception of the Serbs, who while slightly more moderate than their BiH counterparts, express higher dissatisfaction and pessimism than Bosniaks and Croats. The findings are inconclusive, as the post-Dayton process is still unfolding. Recent trends suggest that Brcko’s success, while impressive in many ways, is not irreversible, and that the continued entry of "politics as usual" to the District could challenge the achievements of the past ten years. This preliminary research can hopefully contribute to broader studies of post-conflict peace implementation strategies and policy options, in the interest of improving democratization and international intervention efforts.