THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 29 There are still problems to this day. The country is divided into two. There’s the Republika Srpska, which is where the Bosnian Serbs are under Milorad Dodik. There’s the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a federation of Croats and Bosniaks (who are Muslims). There is an enclave up toward the Serbian border, and there are cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and each canton has a parliament. It’s just totally unwieldy. Allan Reed, a career USAID FSO, served as a mission director in Bosnia between 2009 and 2012. The Dayton Accords: Their Meaning Today By Larry C. Napper Dayton is one of the crowning achievements of American diplomacy in the 20th century, not because it solved all the problems of the Balkans, but because it halted a war in the heart of Europe that had devastated the region and caused many thousands of innocent deaths. The Dayton Agreement reminds us that diplomacy is not without risks and costs, including the lives of three close associates of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke: Robert Frasure, Joseph Kruzel, and Sam Nelson Drew, whose sacrifice helped lead directly to the accords. With Putin on the march in Ukraine, China rising in East Asia, and full-scale war threatening in the Middle East, creative, persistent, and imaginative American diplomacy has never been more important. Larry C. Napper, a former ambassador and career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, served as director of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs (1991-1994), U.S. ambassador to Latvia (19951998) and Kazakhstan (2001-2004), and coordinator for U.S. assistance in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans (1998-2001). n to do. ... What if we put this under arbitration, binding arbitration for one year? What about that?” In other words, we close this discussion down, this three-week discussion, and we leave this one issue out here hanging, breathing, but we put it under binding arbitration. Robert William “Bill” Farrand, a former ambassador and career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, served as deputy high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1997 to 2000 and the first supervisor of the Brcko district. Dayton’s Unintended Consequences By Allan Reed The Dayton Peace Accords ended a horrible conflict, but it set in place a system that is so unwieldy. There are 14 levels of government. At each level, you have a tripartite system, where you have a Bosnian Serb, a Bosnian Muslim, and Bosnian Croat, and they all have equal veto power. Nothing ever gets done, except at the municipal level where there is direct election of mayors. The historic town of Mostar—with its Old Bridge, the “Stari Most,” across the Neretva River—is a symbol of reconciliation. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries as an Ottoman outpost, the town was largely destroyed during the 1990s conflict. The bridge was rebuilt and many edifices restored or reconstructed with the support of UNESCO, a project completed in 2004. This photo was taken in 2012. ERIC NATHAN
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