{"id":5414,"date":"2026-10-16T16:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/?p=5414"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:32:17","slug":"americas-omitted-interest-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-a-response-to-schmitz-and-kennedy-jasmin-mujanovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/americas-omitted-interest-in-bosnia-and-herzegovina-a-response-to-schmitz-and-kennedy-jasmin-mujanovic\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Omitted Interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Response to Schmitz and Kennedy \u2013 Jasmin Mujanovi\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Because of their (geo)politically peripheral position in American foreign policy, there is little in the way of a permanent expert policy community concerned with the Western Balkans in Washington. Joseph E. Schmitz and Brian T. Kennedy\u2019s recent article on Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, illustrates the dangers of leaving legal-political commentary on one of the most complex polities in the world to those lacking the requisite expertise. The product is not just a mangling of the major precepts of Bosnia and Herzegovina\u2019s postwar constitutional and political regime, but, more dangerously, a profound misunderstanding of the United States\u2019 own strategic interests in the region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To wit, Schmitz and Kennedy ask what the American interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina is, and answer by telling us that it is a \u201csovereign, self-governing, and prosperous\u201d Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most Bosnians, and most Americans (even those unfamiliar with the country\u2019s complex politics), would readily agree with that prescript. The trouble is Schmitz and Kennedy\u2019s entire case for a sovereign<\/em> and self-governing<\/em> Bosnia and Herzegovina is constructed through the political perspectives of a Chinese- and Russian-aligned secessionist political leader and his party. Namely, Milorad Dodik and his Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), whose positions Schmitz and Kennedy buttress with occasional references to the views of the likewise ethnic separatist Croat(ian) Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) and their leader Dragan \u010covi\u0107, who has been in a coalition with the SNSD for the better part of twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, from the outset, the entire frame of Schmitz and Kennedy\u2019s article is a classic example of a poisoned well fallacy. Why should America\u2019s interests in Bosnia and Herzegovina be distilled through the views of political leaders, one of whom by his own admission<\/em> is seeking to break up that state? In fact, that aim is not just articulated to the Bosnian public by Dodik\u2019s SNSD on a near daily basis, it is contained in the regime\u2019s own contracts with its retinue of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. To pursue the question of Bosnian sovereignty through the perspective of the SNSD is thus akin to querying Jefferson Davis on his positions on American federalism and the equality of persons under the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let us pursue their argument further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to continue reading the full piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because of their (geo)politically peripheral position in American foreign policy, there is little in the way of a permanent expert policy community concerned with the Western Balkans in Washington. Joseph E. Schmitz and Brian T. Kennedy\u2019s recent article on Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, illustrates the dangers of leaving legal-political commentary on one of the most complex polities in the world to those lacking the requisite expertise. The product is not just a mangling of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-per-curiam"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZSiL-1pk","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5415,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414\/revisions\/5415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}