The influence of ethnic policies on regional development and transport issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

More than two decades after the Dayton peace agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina is still stuck in an ethnically based struggle over territorial power. The former warring parties, and their economic and political elite, have succeeded in remaining in power during peacetime, and continue to influence the everyday life of the State, which is, to great extent organized along ethno-territorial lines of the institutional framework that was written in Dayton. In this paper we examined the system and logic of regional development as a consequence of this agreement, focusing on the development of transportation in the different ethno-territorial areas. We argue that because this field is delegated to the entities and thus to their ethnic elites, a large part of the development plans, policies and activities serve only the ethnic-based objectives of each entity, increasing the cohesion at their level instead of national cohesion. In this post conflict society, regional development is also used to control space and increase the territorial integration of the entities.

Keywords

• regional development
• transportation development
• spatial planning
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• ethnic policy
• ethno-territorial logic