POLITICAL AND LEGAL CHALLENGES FACED BY THE REPUBLIC SRPSKA REGARDING THE ACCESSION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA TO NATO

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s membership in NATO is one of the most contentious internal issues with significant external implications. Slightly more than two and a half decades of intense post-war relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and NATO have been marked by the interpolation of NATO in the implementation of the military aspects of the Dayton Peace Agreement, influence on defense reform and the establishment of the BiH Armed Forces, including ongoing partnership activities regarding training, joint military exercises, and peace support operations in crisis areas. At the same time, the BiH authorities have adopted documents of a legal and political nature on the path to cooperation and applying for NATO membership. However, at least a decade ago, the official policy of the Republic Srpska, and the vast majority of peoples, according to research studies, has created a barrier to the process of Euro-Atlantic integration of BiH. The reasons for this are painful memories, which are still fresh in people’s minds, of NATO Operation Deliberate Force air campaign against the Republic Srpska in 1995, global changes and the influence of Russia and China on international relations, including their current and future investments in the Republic Srpska, and strong support in the UN Security Council (which is incompatible with the existence of NATO here), Serbia’s position on military neutrality and the commitment of the Republic Srpska to follow Serbia regarding these matters and, in this sense, the existence of an official act enacted by the Republic Srpska National Assembly on its military neutrality as non-economic justification of defence allocations.

This paper addresses political and legal challenges faced by the Republic Srpska with regard to the accession of BiH to NATO and discusses the political and legal implications of this issue through the prism of the recent past of this region, the military dimension of relations, economic and international aspects, including the quite irreversible steps so far taken toward NATO membership. From the legal-political aspect, the main hypothesis of our research is that BiH has reached an advanced stage in the process of NATO integration but in the material aspect, it is quite unjustified and blocked by strong opposition of the Republic Srpska and the growing restraint of the Federation of BiH.