Carnegie Europe
27 June 2024
Entrenched divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have hampered EU and U.S. efforts to build functional institutions and integrate the country into Western clubs, writes Dimitar Bechev of Carnegie Europe in a new analysis. Dysfunctionality in turn provides fertile ground for meddling by Russia, which appears to have won the battle for the hearts and minds of Bosnian Serbs.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a piece of unfinished business for the EU in its “near abroad,” which has made it a convenient target for Russian meddling and opportunism. While it is easier for Moscow to throw its weight around in countries like Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia, BiH stands out as one of the battlegrounds where Russia and the West are vying for influence. The standoff is taking place amid chronic regional dysfunction, with the legacy of 1990s wars casting a shadow, authoritarian tendencies on the rise, and EU and NATO tutelage coming under strain. As Western organizations struggle to regain credibility and integrate Bosnia as a full member, local actors are exploiting the limbo for their own political benefit.
BiH is also part of an “arc of instability” that cuts through Eastern and Southeast Europe and whose challenges are now becoming more acute in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but where the high-level policy attention needed to resolve them is absent.
You can find the full text of the report Between the EU and Moscow: How Russia Exploits Divisions in Bosnia here.