Locals in Sarajevo have plenty to say to any American, but the connection to Dayton seemed to spark a desire to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings about the peace process, and especially the aftermath. Despite the fact that this settlement is known here in Ohio as making “Dayton synonymous with peace,” the predominant opinion from those whom I know in Sarajevo is frustration and impotence. The settlement created a divided Bosnia-Herzegovina; cutting the burgeoning country into segments based upon ethnic and religious affiliation. There were Orthodox Serbs, Bosniak Muslims, and Latin Christian Croats, who were each given their own elected positions, and, especially in the case of the Serbs, recognition of their own region (Republica Srpska) within Bosnia and Herzegovina. This fragmentation which was set into law in 1995 has only increased over time. As each of the groups has to only appeal to their own ethnic base for votes, there is little need to discuss compromise or conciliation, and thus the default has been to appeal to division to mobilize voters.
The question that people asked me as an American, and as a historian, is why? Why, when the United States government is run on the idea that everyone was created equal and that race, color, and creed should not matter in one’s rights; did the United States help to divide Bosnia based on ethnicity and religion?
Though I have since read multiple books on the subject and talked with experts, I still do not have an answer, although this is not the only time the U.S. has followed this policy, repeating it a decade later with the division of Iraq into Sunni, Shia, and Kurd segments. Despite not having an answer to this question, it is worth continuing to ask why, if we would like to foster democracy and civility in our own society in an electorate that is becoming larger and more diverse, do we encourage division and separation by race and creed in other countries? This month, as we look back on the Dayton Accord, it is worth revisiting the process and asking the question of how we shape the world in light of what we want for ourselves at home.
Christian Raffensperger is a professor and chair of history at Wittenberg University.
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