Hamza Preljević

This article explores several challenges that have impeded Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (hereinafter: Bosnia) progress in its pursuit of European Union (EU) membership. It discusses four impediments to the country’s ability to join the EU: (1) the political system (or decision-making process), (2) the country’s societal structure, (3) the quasi-protectorate status, and (4) the Muslim population issue. Due to these impediments, Bosnia is experiencing more difficulties integrating into the EU than countries from previous enlargement waves. Consequently, Bosnia is unable to become a member of the EU at present, and the country has only undergone minimal domestic changes since submitting its application to join the EU in 2016.

Trust in the European Union in Challenging Times offers an interdisciplinary approach to trust in the European Union (EU) derived from political science, law and economics.

This volume originates from a conference on ‘Solidarity and its Crisis in the European Union’ that was held at the University of Hamburg from June 2-3, 2016, and aims to discuss how solidarity is applied in practice among the Member States of the Union. It is a vital contribution for understanding the solidarity of the European Union (EU). The two main parts of this volume deal with (i) the concept of solidarity and its theoretical and practical meaning, and (ii) how the crisis of solidarity has become a crucial test for the integration project of the Union. This volume brings a multidisciplinary perspective to its analysis of the crisis of solidarity in the EU. The volume stands for the idea that the good intentions of European solidarity are not enough unless the solidarity turns into practice.

The main aim of this paper is to prove that religious communities can play a vital role in building peace and trust among conflict-divided societies such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. A special focus has been put on five municipalities in East Bosnia that survived the genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass deportation. Enforcement, peacekeeping, agreement making, and institution and capacity-building are the main elements that have to be taken into consideration in the process of peacebuilding. The peacebuilding process is challenged in East Bosnia due to the lack of desire on the part of the Serbian Orthodox Church to take part and be involved in a joint peacebuilding process with the Islamic Community.

Cathie Carmichael’s book integrated the political, economic and cultural history of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Throughout a rigorous study of primary and secondary sources, the book offers an objective engagement, covering the historical developments of BiH. Carmichael avoided a narrow approach towards the history of BiH by not focusing only on the events of the 1990’s – but rather offered a historical overview of the country (from the Ottoman Empire until the recent events).