T K Vogel — research & analysis

When the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC), a consortium of 55 governments and international organizations that oversees peace efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, met in Brussels on February 26-27, the mood was grim. Last year, the PIC announced that the top international body in Bosnia, the Office of the High Representative (OHR), should phase out by the end of June 2007 and hand over to a European Union special representative. But since last year’s meeting, stalled reform, a delay in signing a preaccession agreement with the European Union, a divisive general election, and the expectation of potential fallout from the upcoming Kosova status decision have all conspired to make a June handover appear unrealistic. The PIC was therefore constrained to extend the OHR’s mandate by one year, through June 30, 2008. The PIC’s decision is a recognition that international policy toward Bosnia over the last year has failed to achieve its goals. But what exactly are those goals?

The OHR was established to implement the Dayton peace agreement of November 1995 and has extensive powers over Bosnia’s domestic politics. In late 1997, after a difficult start under Carl Bildt, the OHR was handed the authority to enact or revoke legislation; dismiss public officials and bar them from holding office in the future; vet candidates for public office; and fine or ban political parties.

These so-called Bonn powers have since become the focus of an intense though largely academic debate about the legitimacy of using nondemocratic means to build democracy. The lack of an appeals or review procedure prompted particularly harsh, and justified, criticism even from observers who were sympathetic to the notion that the difficult transition from war to peace required robust tools.

High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch put the notion of “local ownership” at the center of his tenure, from 1999 to 2002, but did not shy away from using the Bonn powers where necessary. Under his successor, Paddy Ashdown, Bonn decisions reached their peak, and Ashdown’s forceful manner provoked angry shouts from the sidelines.

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