BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN THE POLITICAL PROJECTION OF INTELLECTUAL CIRCLES (1992-1995) Cover Image

BOSNA I HERCEGOVINA U POLITIČKOJ PROJEKCIJI INTELEKTUALNIH KRUGOVA (1992-1995)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN THE POLITICAL PROJECTION OF INTELLECTUAL CIRCLES (1992-1995)

Author(s): Edin Omerčić
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institut za istoriju
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; peace plan; intellectual circles; Congress of Serb Intellectuals; Democratic Forum; Muslim Association of Mostar and Herzegovina; Bosniak Assembly; Croatian National Council; Serb Civic Council; Croatian Society for Sciences

Summary/Abstract: This paper considers the question of political perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. Using Malešević’s interpretation of Gramsci’s and Baumann’s theory of intellectuals and types of intellectuals, the author constructed a suitable model according to which he considered the activities of intellectual circles as ”invisible” interpreters, organicistic interpreters, organic interpreters to legislators who worked on a mononational platform. After the sociological identification of intellectual circles gathered in regional centres of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Banja Luka, Mostar, Tuzla and Sarajevo, observed through the accounts of their public activities, the author stated the opinions of intellectual circles about the constitutional and territorial organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina considering and referring to the contemporary political context on a local and international level. By the end of the 1980-ies and the beginning of the 1990-ies the political party system in Bosnia and Herzegovina was pluralized and liberalized thus bringing about the emergence of first institutionalized intellectual circles. Their activities were regulated by the statute, the manifesto and they officially determined their aims, objectives and plans. Many, although not all, regulated the legal status and were registered in the competent institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this paper, we presented the activities of intellectual circles in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 and their political perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the marked period, the institutionalized intellectual circles operated as an action – before the war and the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, intellectuals who through their long-time work had created a favourable ambient, a social climate which justified hatred, violence and killings; and as a reaction to aggression, war and contemporary political events, and as support and advocator of certain political option i.e. the opposition. With the help of Malešević’s interpretation of Gramsci’s and Baumann’s theory on intellectuals it is possible, for this period, to discern different groups and types of intellectual circles. The time frame, defined by this paper, can be characterized as a period of ”condensed history”. In this period peace proposals and negotiations were in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Cutiller’s mediation in eight ”rounds”, Vance – Owen Peace Plan, then the Owen – Stoltenberg Plan and the Washington Agreement, the mediation of the Contact Group to the Dayton Peace Agreement on which intellectual circles exerted almost no direct influence. Until the very outbreak of war on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, several ad hoc gathered groups of intellectuals urged the political elites attempting to stop the sufferings and to abjure fatal political solutions. However, these appeals remained unanswered.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 13
  • Page Range: 9-134
  • Page Count: 99
  • Language: Bosnian