Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Postwar Paralysis – A Conversation with High Representative Christian Schmidt

Thirty years after the end of one of Europe’s bloodiest post-Cold War conflicts, Bosnia and Herzegovina remains a state caught between promise and paralysis. Ethnic power-sharing that is deadlocked, a separatist leader backed by Moscow, an EU membership prospect nobody believes in, and over a million people – mostly young – who have already left.

At the center of it all stands the High Representative Christian Schmidt, the most powerful figure in Bosnia, with sweeping authority to impose laws and dismiss officials – elected not by the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina but by a foreign entity. 

Is Bosnia a success story of international peacebuilding or a tale of what happens with too much foreign influence? And what does it reveal about the competing spheres of influence of the West and Russia? 

We explored these questions with none other than the current High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina himself, Christian Schmidt.