Croatia

After several failed attempts to move Bosnia-Herzegovina beyond political and economic stalemate, last month's joint commitment by top leaders to European values and identity, a social market economy and the rule of law might mark an opportunity for change.  Five major political parties from Bosnia's two entities reached agreement to sign the joint declaration amid the deepest institutional crisis since the end of the war in 1995. It remains to be seen whether the parties will be able to generate support for their united stance in the run-up to the October 2014 elections.

On July 1, 2013, the Republic of Croatia will become the 28th member of the European Union. It is only the second country formed from the dissolution of Yugoslavia to become an EU member state, and the first to emerge from protracted conflict. Croatia negotiated its way through the myriad of EU membership requirements, undertook political and economic reforms, and it now stands poised to take its place among the family of European nations.

What can we learn about global security nearly two decades after the hugely destructive violence of the Bosnian War? Despite the end of the armed conflict in 1995, Bosnia is still described as a country in “a perpetual state of crisis.”  Few easy answers exist on how to bridge the political divide, which is wider today than it was before the war.
 

Father Ivo Markovic, a Bosnian Friar, is a founder of Pontanima, an interreligious choir based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is widely acclaimed as an innovative peacemaking project, a shining representation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and a major contributor to the country's cultural life. The choir and its founder received Search for Common Ground Reconciliation Through the Arts Award (2004) and the Tanenbaum Peacemakers in Action Award (1998), among others.