Environmental Issues in Post-Conflict States and the Multiple Streams Model

Abstract

In post-conflict states, environmental problems are often neglected regardless of their severity. According to UN data, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is one of the countries with the worst air pollution in the world, which has serious consequences for people's health and the economy. Given the importance of this issue, the paper investigates why it is not on the agenda of policymakers, by applying Kingdon's multiple streams model. The analysis leads to the conclusion that of the three streams (problem, policy, and politics), the politics stream remains the most problematic one. However, the author argues that Kingdon's original model is deficient in explaining why this problem is off the agenda, since it only includes domestic actors, while in the case of post-conflict BiH, as well as some other post-conflict countries, international actors play a significant role. In order to overcome this shortcoming, the model itself is enhanced by an insight into the role that international actors played in relation to this problem. It is concluded that the problems of environmental protection were largely ignored by international actors as well, primarily due to the nature of the liberal model of peacebuilding, that predominantly focused on building democratic institutions.