Bulletin n. 2-3/2012
October 2012-February 2013
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Keil Soeren
    Federalism as a Tool of Conflict-Resolution: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina
    in Europe en formation (L') , n. 363, 2012/1 ,  2012 ,  205-218
    Federalism has been used as a tool to end the violent conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and ensure political cooperation after the war. However, the ideology of federalism as well as the federal state institutions were constructs of international actors and not indigenous to Bosnia. As a consequence it can be witnessed how the idea of federal statehood remains challenged from all sides in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. While there have been a number of important reforms in Bosnia since 1995, these have generally focused on strengthening the central level at the expense of the entities. What the reforms have not created is an environment in which the Bosnian state as such is not challenged anymore. Instead, the EU had to realize that its conditionality is not working in Bosnia since local elites continue to see politics as a zero-sum game. What Bosnia needs is a constitutional reform in which the major parties agree on the nature of the Bosnian state and their relationship to the state and to each other. These reforms have to be achieved through local compromise and cooperation and cannot be imposed from the outside. Finally, this paper will demonstrate how federalism has contributed to building peace and building a federal state in Bosnia, but how it has failed in creating a consensus on the state and ensure that all parties accept the state and its federal nature
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