The War in Bosnia.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide senior military leaders and policymakers and those deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time an insight into the people, the events that led to the war, the positions of the warring parties, and the issues that divide them. When I deployed to Sarajevo in April 1994, 1 knew little of the history, the culture or even the geography of the place. I subsequently discovered that virtually everyone who comes to the region as a peacekeeper, journalist, humanitarian aid worker, or even a policymaker knows little about the core issues or the participants' perceptions of the situation. I wrote this paper to force myself to learn more about what was happening and to provide others with some insights from a field perspective. Due to the security situation, most visitors to Bosnia stay only a short time; the very few American officers and NCOs assigned to Bosnia-Herzegovina Command stay three months or less. All but the very top UNPROFOR commanders rotate at six-month intervals and many UN military personnel stay only three. In the two months I was in Sarajevo, I know of no visiting parliamentarian who stayed in the city overnight, dozens never left the airport. I mention this not to criticize the people who came - their governments and the UN lay down tough restrictions out of concern for their safety - but to point out how difficult it is for accurate information to be developed and passed on to policy-makers. The issues in Bosnia are complex and hard to understand without extensive reading ori the subject - something that is difficult to do since the literature in English is scattered, fragmentary, and hard to find on the scene. Much has been written about Yugoslavia in general, the Serbs and, to a lesser extent, the Croats. (KAR) P. 3-4
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA294783
Entities
People
- Donal J. Collins
Organizations
- United States Army War College