The Issue of Statehood in the Post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina Cover Image

Pitanje državljanstva u postdejtonskoj BiH
The Issue of Statehood in the Post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina

Author(s): Mirt Komel
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Univerzitet u Sarajevu
Keywords: statehood; national affiliation; state; nation; national state; cosmopolitism; religious affiliation; national sovereignty

Summary/Abstract: The topic presented here by the author primarily addresses the issue of statehood, but also, the correlation of this term with other “similar” terms. Statehood is here chronologically valorized from the ancient times, until today, when it has acquired entirely different connotations. Special emphasis is placed here on the issue of statehood in the post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been the topic of many contemporary political, social and legal debates. When discussing this topic in its modern interpretation, the issue of “identifying” the notion of statehood with the notion of national affiliation certainly captures most attention and, at the same time, it is also raises the most controversy. The author is tirelessly trying to unveil the substantial differences between these notions, at the same time warning against all the injustices this “identification” causes. It is quite evident that the author objects this “quasi-symbiotic relation”, which he sees as unnatural, illogical and anachronous. A national state is, in Komel’s view, the main source of such a situation, because its formula “one nation in one state” absolutely justifies this cosmetic equation. The author sees the way out of this gulf of statehood in secularization, in this case, primarily in separation of the State from the Nation, that is, of statehood from national affiliation.

  • Issue Year: XLIX/2008
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 139-163
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Bosnian