BiH’s Contributions to International Military-Security-Peace Operations

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the creation and enactment of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) foreign policy role of ‘international security contributor and provider.’ We first describe the adoption of a normative framework and establishment of key institutional actors through international interventionism. We then discuss the horizontal contestation of national roles: interactions between domestic political elites, bureaucratic actors, and international elites, who are key to understanding BiH’s foreign policy behavior regarding international military-security-peace operations. Third, we also reflect on endogenous constraints (finances and foreign policy identity) that impede enactment of national roles. Finally, we argue that this role has been strategically utilized by domestic political elites to achieve their respective political and material goals. However, notwithstanding all the identified constraints, we demonstrate that Bosnian foreign policy agency exists in this field.