Bosnia’s Balancing Act: Navigating the Chasm between Collapse and Renewal

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarević, Emin. “Bosnia’s Balancing Act: Navigating the Chasm between Collapse and Renewal.” Islamic Horizons 52, no. 6 (November–December 2023).

Status

Published

Publication type

Public scholarship / commentary

Overview

This commentary examines Bosnia and Herzegovina’s fragile political settlement at a moment when institutional paralysis, ethno-nationalist competition, and external pressure threatened to deepen the country’s divisions. It asks how Bosnia can move beyond a political order that repeatedly reproduces crisis while preserving the plural social fabric that made post-war reconstruction possible. The article interprets the country’s predicament as a struggle between political fragmentation and civic renewal. It argues that durable stability requires more than managing competing elites: it depends on strengthening accountable institutions, shared citizenship, and forms of social cooperation capable of resisting separatist agendas. By placing institutional vulnerability alongside the moral resources of ordinary civic life, the commentary identifies renewal as a political and ethical task. Its contribution is a concise diagnosis of Bosnia’s structural impasse and the conditions under which democratic resilience might be rebuilt.

Research question or central concern

How can Bosnia and Herzegovina move from recurring institutional crisis toward democratic renewal without sacrificing its plural civic order?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The article argues that Bosnia’s stability cannot rest on crisis management or ethno-nationalist bargaining alone. It combines political analysis with an ethical concern for shared citizenship, institutional accountability, and civic resilience.

Keywords

Bosnia and Herzegovina; democratic renewal; ethno-nationalism; citizenship; institutional reform; civil society