As the EU’s engagement in the Balkans fades, and global narratives shift, local leaders may be tempted to trying applying local solutions to unresolved issues – which in the past ended in violence.
Four months after parliamentary elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country remains in a deep political crisis. It is reviving fears that the country could break up, as well as prompting debates about trying alternative solutions to the country’s problems – including revising the 1995 Dayton deal that ended the 1992-5 war.
These discussions follow a pattern witnessed in the region since August last year.
Then, after EU-sponsored negotiations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo broke down, the two leaders, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, launched their own idea of bilaterally resolving relations through an exchange of territories.
