Republika Srpska and its Boundaries in Bosnian Serb Geographical Narratives in the Post‐Dayton Period

Abstract

Territory has been a key physical and symbolic resource in postsocialist national mobilisation as well-de®ned nations have sought to con®rm or create nation-states and their boundaries. This paper analyses geographical narratives accompanying the Bosnian Serb attempt to impose and retain control over territory in Bosnia±Herzegovina. Bosnian Serb failure to create a sovereign nation-state was followed by a portrayal of the Dayton-based entity of the Republika Srpska as a state in Bosnian Serb geographical narratives and of its administrative boundary as a symbolic national border. The paper reaf®rms the continued relevance of the spatial analysis of the 1995 territorial arrangement of Bosnia±Herzegovina, instituted by the Dayton Peace Agreement. It explores the role of spatial narratives in the symbolic construction of nationhood, while emphasising the relevance of actual and lived expressions of the nation's territory and its boundaries.

Parent StatesversusSecessionist Entities: Measuring Political Legitimacy in Cyprus, Moldova and Bosnia & Hercegovina

“…Moreover, the Federation of Bosnia & Hercegovina has been in a position to play an integrative role and thus resembles a parent state, whereas the Republika Srpska could qualify as a secessionist entity. In many respects, the Republika Srpska of today is the successor to the de facto state that existed in 1992-1995 and which was not dissolved by the Dayton Accords but was instead frozen in the form of a 'semi-independent entity' for Bosnian Serbs and separated from the Federation of Bosnia & Hercegovina territories by an Inter-Entity Boundary Line (Zahar 2004;Kostovicova 2004;Berg & Solvak 2011). Moreover, the 'Kosovo precedent' seems to have revitalised the notion of an attempted breakaway in the minds of Bosnian Serbs.…”

Ethnic and Nationalist Mobilization

“…This version of the boundary approach has been applied most fruitfully to the breakup of Yugoslavia (Carmichael. 2005, Cross and Komnenich 2005, Cushman, 2004, Kostovicova 2004. The argument for nationalism as a binding enterprise can be confirmed in the Basque case, where Arana's chief goal was to create, re-create, and reinforce the boundary between Basques and non-Basques (Conversi 1997).…”

Challenging the representation of ethnically divided cities: perspectives from Mostar

“…Secondly, and drawing on ongoing debates also hosted by this journal on divided cities (e.g. Diez & Hayward, 2008;Kostovicova, 2004;Koureas, 2008;Marshall, 2013;Rafferty, 2012;Shirlow, 2006), we wish to push forward and revitalize the discussion about how to approach and frame research in these politically fragile environments. By engaging with complexities, we are not arguing that cities like Mostar (i.e.…”