WHITHER BOSNIA?: DILEMMAS OF STATEBUILDING IN THE WESTERN BALKANS

The deep-running divisions within the Bosnian society torn apart by the 1992-95 war, the political elites' confrontational style and the overwhelming role played by the international community perpetuate the deadlocks that define politics in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Recently, BiH was a testing ground for instruments related to the emerging European Security and Defense Policy such as the police mission (EUPM) launched in 2002 and EUFOR, a peacekeeping mission which replaced NATO's SFOR in 2004. The European Union needs to turn the Western Balkans into a success story if it wants to assert itself as a credible actor in global politics. BiH is critical in that endeavor.