Ups and downs of US policy in BiH and the Balkans at today's session of Circle 99

Tanya L. Domi, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and an affiliate faculty member of the Harriman Institute was the introductory speaker at the session today.

As the President of the 'Circle 99' Adil Kulenović said, Domi is an excellent connoisseur of the Balkan and Bosnian state of affairs in the recent past, but also an animator of essential, democratic changes and transition of these countries into the auspices of modern democratic order and the values of liberal democracy.

“It seems that in the past 30 years, the key characteristic of US foreign policy towards the Balkans and BiH has been marked by successive oscillations and unexpected ups and downs. It always rises when that policy followed its own democratic and civilizational values as a right measure of relations with other nations and states. And it declines, when practical politics, pragmatic interests, and unknown goals prevailed as a measure of those relations,” said Kulenović.

In April 2021, Domi published an editorial in the magazine "Foreign Policy" under the title "Bosnia is Heading Toward Another Meltdown: The Negligence of the EU and the US allows Russia to inflame ethnic passions".

“I regret to say that everything we wrote predicted the coming crisis, which was illustrated by the American embrace, and was supported by the Office of the High Representative, accepting the cooperation of Dragan Čović and Milorad Dodik on the delegitimization of democracy, by stealing the idea of reform from the verdict in the Sejdić-Finci case, which they replaced with a formula that encourages the worst drives to give Bosnian Croat nationalists more influence in the House of Peoples through overrepresentation. Not only did High Representative Christian Schmidt impose a new Election Law during the elections in October 2022, violating the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but he also violated the protocols of the Venice Commission at the request of the United States,” said Domi.

She notes that the High Representative does not respect the rule of law, which should cement his mandate in BiH as a German representative who spread colonial oppression in the heart of Europe with the support of the United States of America.

She added that the decisions of the EU Court of Human Rights on the electoral imbalance and the discriminatory constitution should have been the first thing that would have triggered consideration of the use of Bonn powers.

Domi stated on this occasion that there have been no US troops in BiH for a long time, but tolerating nationalist thugs, especially those who represent the interests of Russia, is not a strategic approach to support the suffering Bosnia nor other parts of the Balkans.

“It seems the US has given up on the idea of a civil, democratic Bosnia and other parts of the Balkans. This is supported by the fact that the State Department is currently working hard to lend a helping hand to none other than Aleksandar Vučić, the President of Serbia. And the West does not get much in return for these efforts. I urge people to continue protesting in the streets for what is right - decent wages and the right to run for office. As for BiH, I invite BiH citizens to work with the BiH diaspora in the United States to meet with their members of Congress and senators,” concluded Domi.

(FENA) A. B.

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