Dayton +20: beyond ‘lessons learned’

Abstract

More than twenty years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a prominent case for peacebuilding in other divided societies. Scholars and policy-makers alike refer to the diverse lessons learned from the Bosnian case. For some, Bosnia’s political arrangement offers a cautionary example of how ethnic differences can become entrenched once they are institutionalised. For others, the top-down nature of peacebuilding strategies has resulted in a peace process that is disconnected from the lives of ordinary Bosnian citizens. The special issue offers a critical, multilevel approach to local, regional and international aspects of peacebuilding that provides a rather sobering picture of the limits and potential for further peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As such, in addition to several important insights about the role of elites, political arrangements and strategies of transitional justice, the articles in this issue highlight the need for further scholarly inclusions of ordinary Bosnians and their experiences in building peace. At the same time, several of the articles also go beyond the Bosnian and Western Balkan context to highlight how dominant liberal peacebuilding approaches have led to similar outcomes in diverse contexts. In other words, the issue interweaves several strands of research to bring forward a rich discussion of Dayton’s legacy that examines its impact on local and regional levels but also situates it within a broader global peacebuilding approach.