Frustrated Optimist/
Senior Associate, Democratization Policy Council (@DPC_Global) / University of St. Andrews & @CSTPV Alum /@USUKFulbright 2016-2017 scholar
Oct 1 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
Important statement by French Ambassador re @OHR_BiH push to addess @ECHR_CEDH on Kovacevic case appeal. 1/👇 klix.ba/vijesti/bih/fr…
Our view (from 2023) at @DPC_global on the potential of the ruling, in combination with the whole Sejdic-Finci caselaw, to enable a new alternative social contract, here 2/ 👇 democratizationpolicy.org/dpc-on-ecthrs-…
Aug 25 • 43 tweets • 9 min read
Yet again, Dodik gives the West and the state the finger - just days after his mtg w @CIA Director Burns. 1/ klix.ba/vijesti/bih/do…
While previous episodes of this behavior pattern are legion, this is perhaps the most brazen. I believe he is so confident that the EU DESPERATELY wants to continue to signal Potemkin progress toward an inter-govt conf that there will be no consequences he can't weather. 2/
Apr 22 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
Balkanistas should watch @TimothyDSnyder's answer to this question in its entirety. A few thoughts of applications of the potential imperial defeat in this region follow. 1/
De facto, but not de jure, the 1990s Greater Serbia's project was stuffed after 1999. That failure - with the Serbian forces' compelled withdrawal from Kosovo, enabled the roughly decade of progress that followed for the region. 2/
Oct 6, 2023 • 49 tweets • 11 min read
1/ I am preparing to update my PhD dissertation ("Peace Cartels: Internationally Brokered Power-Sharing and Perpetual Oligarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia") for publication. I defended three years ago - and it's been an eventful interval. This passage hit me...
2/ Conclusion to BiH case, header "Running on Empty" - "The nature of BiH's political system and incentive structure by now should be clear to all those who wish to see. Yet despite nearly a decade and a half of evidence to the contrary the international community...
Aug 30, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
@USEmbassySJJ 2. While the USG may always have "supported" implementation of ECtHR rulings declaratively, it sure as hell hasn't been a policy priority, like "electoral reform" was 2021-23, for instance.
@USEmbassySJJ 3. This won't be resolved by "compromise" among the powers that be, simply because turkeys don't vote for Thanksgiving. Hence the flaming vitriol and even talk of potential violence from them - without intl response to let them know this will not be permitted.
Aug 19, 2023 • 32 tweets • 6 min read
1/ I just reviewed this @TheWilsonCenter report after checking the link citing it for an upcoming article. It's almost 3 years old - published at a time I and many others involved had reason to hope in the new @potus/@SecBlinken administration on #BiH. wilsoncenter.org/publication/fi…2/ It makes me wistful at the road not traveled. I quote one para of the conclusion in its entirety below.
Aug 11, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
1/ "The depressing conclusion Plokhy has come to after studying the parallels between the 1930s and the years leading up to 2022 is that Europe does not learn from history..."
2/ "...I, and probably many others, lived with this belief that somehow we as humanity, we learnt from our past, we learnt from our mistakes... And looking at these parallels, the really uncomfortable idea comes to mind that actually we don’t learn or we don’t learn enough.”
Aug 7, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Two headlines, two papers - one story of #BiH:
From @NezavisneBL, by @dejansaj: "The new govt contiues as the old, no reform"
Today's @Oslobodjenjeba, however:
"BiH Negotiations with the EU begin this year"
