Deconstructing Dayton: Ethnic Politics and the Legacy of War in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Volume
10
Pagination
548 - 565
Publisher
Publisher URL
DOI
10.1080/17502977.2016.1208992
Journal
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Issue
ISSN
1750-2977
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Show full item recordAbstract
Twenty years after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) which brought the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to an end, the dysfunctional nature of the Bosnian state means that the question of how political actors in BiH engage with the DPA as a response to the war remains vitally important. This article argues that moving beyond the ethnicisation of politics in BiH enacted by the DPA can be achieved by challenging the understandings of the war which informs the DPA while simultaneously challenging the effects of these understandings in the present. By advancing what I term a ‘deconstructive conclusion’ of the DPA, this article demonstrates the practical utility of Jacques Derrida’s thought for engaging with the legacy of war in BiH.