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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > December > 03 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Bosnia agonies becoming bigger threat to ‘Dayton’
Last month, some Dayton- area people paused in connection with the 14th anniversary of the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia — sort of.
They attended one or more sessions associated with the annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which grew out of the talks. That was entirely appropriate.
But there was little talk about Bosnia itself, or, at least, about Bosnia today. It wasn’t the subject of the books being honored.
If there’s not much talk about Bosnia even in Dayton — a city whose name is linked with Bosnia throughout the world — even on an anniversary, that underlines a point being made by Bosnia watchers: the country isn’t getting the attention it needs from the world at large, especially from world powers.
Hotter spots crowd Bosnia out of public and official attention.
When you do check back in with Bosnia, you find bad news. The bitter divisions between religious groups — the cause of war in the 1990s — are still the primary political characteristic of the place.
The country is dysfunctional. On that, there’s little disagreement among outside observers. Whether renewed violence is in the air is more open for discussion. In the years immediately after the Dayton talks, Bruce Hitchner was the most visible Daytonian on matters Bosnia. The University of Dayton professor would convene annual conferences attended by big players from the Balkans and the U.S. State Department.
He’s now at Tufts University in Massachusetts, but he’s still engaged on Bosnia, promoting a new constitution.
In an e-mail, he says, “The anniversary of the Dayton Agreement (is) not even commemorated throughout Bosnia, only in the Republika Srpska (the ‘Serb Entity’). The situation in the country is not good, though no outbreak of violence is likely.”
In a paper for a Hungarian think tank, he writes, “The Dayton Agreement’s creation of a multi-layered, ethnically-based governmental system may have been a necessity for bringing peace,” but the structure “has proved to be deeply dysfunctional, expensive, often corrupt, and thus incapable of providing essential services.”
The national government, he says, “is devoid of legal supremacy and powers of enforcement, both of which now reside in the increasingly weak OHR.” That’s a reference to the Office of the High Representative, the international agency still overseeing the country.
Richard Holbrooke, the father of the Dayton accords, far from taking offense at such criticisms, makes similar points and complains about “a distracted international community.”
Until this year, he complained about a distracted Bush administration. Despite distractions, though, the “international community” has poured enormous amounts of money into Bosnia, easily topping per-capita spending to rebuild Germany and Japan after World War II.
But now that form of attention is starting to dry up, as fatigue sets in. The money has failed to produce the self-sufficient economy that has been the goal.
For those still hoping that the Serbs, Muslims and Croats might eventually start to let loose of old grudges, Hitchner notes, “Political conditions have deteriorated since 2006.”
He laments the absence of “a shared sense of nationhood.” He’d like to substitute, at least, loyalty to a new constitution.
European countries have offered an incentive to Bosnia to get its act together: membership in the European Union — along with its trade and travel possibilities. But that hasn’t been enough.
George Will wrote in these pages in September that the Bosnia story shows the futility of nation-building in Afghanistan. If it’s been so hard in Europe — with so much money coming in — imagine how hard it would be in “remote, mountainous, tribal Afghanistan.”
Maybe that’s why we didn’t hear much nation-building talk in President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan speech this week.
To lament Bosnia isn’t, Will acknowledged, to criticize what happened in Dayton. What happened here brought 14 years of peace, at least. And nobody had any better idea.
But future events could still tarnish the international word “Dayton,” could still make it a symbol of dashed dreams.
The Dayton talks have not turned out to be a model for resolving other world conflicts. Others haven’t lent themselves to the technique of knocking heads together over a negotiating table.
But “Dayton” has become a symbol in some circles of American power. Washington stepped in where European capitals had been flailing for years.
Now, once again, the European option — the promise of EU membership — is failing. And now Holbrooke is back in government — if somewhat distracted.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Dayton Peace Accords and Other Peace Initiatives, Martin Gottlieb
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By Leon Harrison
December 3, 2009 6:07 PM | Link to this
It is a European problem and none of our business. We cannot afford involvement with foreign aid or any more wars…including trips for champagne sippers at smart dinner parties.
By sigh
December 3, 2009 7:08 PM | Link to this
So the Balkans remain the Balkans and multiculturalism doesn’t really work because it’s imposed from the top down and the people don’t actually want it. Makes sense.
By Rob
December 4, 2009 10:31 AM | Link to this
Kind of like East and West Dayton…
By Riverdale Ghost
December 15, 2009 9:31 AM | Link to this
A few years ago, while looking around in the library in downtown Cincinnati, I picked up a travel book on Croatia, not that I hope to go there. I was just curious about what kind of was being said about the place. A young woman (young) as I recall with husband at hand watching, was quoted as saying, “We are Coatian, but we are Austrian.” Now, once people get their head around THAT idea (principle), you might see some improvement in things. Europeans understand this. Americans don’t.
By Riverdale Ghost
December 15, 2009 9:31 AM | Link to this
A few years ago, while looking around in the library in downtown Cincinnati, I picked up a travel book on Croatia, not that I hope to go there. I was just curious about what kind of was being said about the place. A young woman (young) as I recall with husband at hand watching, was quoted as saying, “We are Coatian, but we are Austrian.” Now, once people get their head around THAT idea (principle), you might see some improvement in things. Europeans understand this. Americans don’t.
By Riverdale Ghost
December 15, 2009 9:33 AM | Link to this
A few years ago, while looking around in the library in downtown Cincinnati, I picked up a travel book on Croatia, not that I hope to go there. I was just curious about what kind of was being said about the place. A young woman (young) as I recall with husband at hand watching, was quoted as saying, “We are Coatian, but we are Austrian.” Now, once people get their head around THAT idea (principle), you might see some improvement in things. Europeans understand this. Americans don’t.
By Riverdale Ghost
December 15, 2009 9:52 AM | Link to this
Sorry about the duplication, the computer got stuck.
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