Peace from below : developing inter-ethnic dialogue among citizens for bottom-up conflict transformation in Bosnia

Intrastate conflict in recent years between identity groups with ethnicity, religion, language or tribe is very protracted and difficult to prevent, manage or settle. As it can cause chaos within and beyond its borders, protracted intrastate conflict is one of the major security concerns in the contemporary world. The international community applies various policy tools of third party intervention to deal with this problem. This study focuses on third party attempts to develop dialogue between the citizens across the dividing lines of protracted intrastate conflict. While intervention targeting the elite politicians in the state in conflict, often through the conventional diplomatic measures of negotiation or mediation, is referred to as first-track intervention, intervention for dialogue among the citizens can be considered as a part of second-track intervention: that is, efforts to construct peace from below.

Although the approach for top-down conflict transformation represented by first-track intervention is important and potentially effective, it is often insufficient in dealing with protracted intrastate conflict. One such example is Bosnia where a peace agreement was reached in 1995 but the societies and the citizens in the country are still segregated and polarised. The necessity for bottom-up approaches has been clearly recognised in the Bosnian context of conflict transformation, however, international bottom-up strategies have not been so successful.

Using some case studies in the Bosnian context, this thesis examines inter-group dialogue development among citizens as a potentially effective bottom-up approach. The main question to be asked is whether or not and how developing inter-group dialogue among citizens in the divided societies can practically contribute to transforming protracted intrastate conflict. The examination of the cases shows that inter-group dialogue among citizens can contribute not only to reconciliation between the individuals participating in dialogue but also to the generation of bottom-up conflict transformation in some practical ways.