COMMENTARY – THE BOSNIAN TINDERBOX

Abstract

Given the pace of contemporary events, this brief commentary is intended as an addendum and recent update to our original research article that is also published in this issue of World Affairs (vol. 185, no. 2) entitled “The High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Unusual Institutional Arrangement of a Non-Authoritarian, yet Controlled, Democracy” (see Dijkstra and Raadschelders 2022). We focus here on Russia's role in Bosnia and raise some tentative questions that are likely to remain extremely important for world affairs in the Balkans and beyond over the coming months. This commentary was submitted to World Affairs Journal some days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Given the extreme unpredictability of the situation regarding Ukraine and Russia, we elected not to provide substantive updates since late February 2022.