Postwar Political Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Spoils of Peace

The Balkans as a ‘laboratory (for the study) of illegal markets’: introduction to the special issue on ‘Illegal Markets in the Balkans’

“…This is particularly the case with illegal markets of commodities and services that are 'legal', needed and are not, therefore, socially condemned, although there are cases in which socially condemned illegal markets have had their positive effect of certain Balkan societies. For instance, after the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, smuggling was essential for the Serbs to counterbalance the embargoes (UNICRI excerpt, this issue); the health care and education in Kosovo depended -to a great extent-on revenues generated from drug trafficking; in Bulgaria many enterprises were dependent on mass smuggling (Haijdinjak 2002); and illegal markets were the only survival means in post-war Bosnia (Pugh 2002). In addition, as is evident in Arsovska and Kostakos' contribution, the smuggling of arms through officially set and/or supported schemes was essential for the survival of Croatian and Bosnian armies that were fighting against the better equipped military apparatus of the Serbs.…”

Branding Post-War Sarajevo

“…Today the city faces many immediate dilemmas including a fragile state structure, deeply flawed constitution, a weak economy, and the disturbing intensification of ethnonationalistic discourse (Pugh 2002;Ramet 2002). The international community still plays an important role in the country's politics as the new government endures corruption and pressing economic under-development (Fejzic 2011).…”

“…In particular, the connection Peck makes is the one between neoliberalism's economic aims and the discursive "therapeutic ethos," a discourse that encourages the commercialization of violent memories as productive response to trauma and a form of self-realization. Neoliberalism BRANDING POST-WAR SARAJEVO 729 aims to transfer social issues, like reconciling a violent past (both collectively and individually), to the free market (Benson, Fischer, and Thomas 2008;Peck 2008;Pugh 2002;Volcic and Andrejevic 2011). Within this framework, both pain and trauma are expressed and represented repeatedly through the cultural filters of recovery, where personal lessons and messages of hope embedded in painful narrative discourse are the norm (Cole 1999;Gilmore 2010;Peck 2008, Simic 2009Sturken 2007).…”

The Political Economy of Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…The international presence and reform policies created opportunity structures that benefited war entrepreneurs and local elites, who (often simultaneously) have resisted and captured various processes of change. 23 Both international community and war entrepreneurs had a pliant, impoverished population in the economic sphere that could be exploited for nationalist loyalty (by the war entrepreneurs) and moulded for modernization (by the international community). Above all, international administrators and local elites have privileged business and private wealth as the motor for economic change.…”