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Bosnia: 10 Years after Dayton II by Paddy Ashdown International Herald Tribune Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, November 20, 2005 How do you prevent failed states from becoming launch pads for terrorism? How do you turn them into functioning democracies? How do you intervene effectively to serve the citizens of those states and the citizens of the global community? A decade of peace implementation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the U.S.-brokered agreement signed at Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995, offers tentative answers to these questions. The poverty, lawlessness and political confrontation that were the immediate legacy of Bosnia"s three-and-a-half-year war could have turned the country into a black hole, a staging post for transnational crime and terrorism, consigning its citizens to the status of pariahs. Yet today Bosnia is a stable democracy with a growing economy about to begin negotiating accession to the European Union and ready to participate in NATO"s Partnership for Peace. It has passed through the gates that lead to Euro-Atlantic integration, moving from the era of Dayton to the era of Brussels. What worked? Military force, judiciously applied. A NATO-led force of 60,000 peacekeepers was deployed in the winter of 1995 to support the political settlement. Troops on their own can"t do the job, but political reconstruction can work only if supported by credible military capability. Over the last 10 years, force hasn"t been needed, but it has always been an option. The NATO deployment has now been replaced by a much smaller EU force, but one that is visibly capable of keeping the peace. This deployment has been accompanied by a progressive downsizing of Bosnia"s armed forces, now numbering 12,000, which are being reconfigured and modernized in order to begin taking part in NATO exercises. Since June this year a Bosnian demining unit has been deployed with coalition forces in Iraq. Dayton established a complex government structure designed to guarantee representation for each of Bosnia"s three constituent peoples - Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Immediately after the war, party leaders misused this structure for their own ends. Nation-building was put on hold; the economy, kept on life support by international aid, languished. So, two years after Dayton, the international community empowered the high representative to dismiss officials and to impose laws if this was deemed necessary to advance the peace process. This proactive approach has worked. It has allowed international and local officials to sidestep obstructionism and establish the institutions necessary for a viable modern democracy. In October, political agreement was reached on establishing, within the next five years, a state-level, European-standard police system that is democratically controlled and efficiently run. We have completed the rehabilitation of the judiciary so that the courts are now in a position to tackle the endemic lawlessness that had threatened to overwhelm the state. In addition, the intelligence services have been reconstituted and brought under democratic control. Just two weeks ago, Bosnia"s security institutions successfully mounted an operation against potential suicide bombers transiting through the country. Economic reforms undertaken preparatory to the launch of EU accession talks have produced major improvements in the business environment: The prospect of full integration in Europe has served as a powerful and popular incentive. Growth in gross domestic product this year is projected at 5.6 percent, the fastest in the Balkans. Inflation stands at 0.5 percent, the lowest in the Balkans. Foreign direct investment, industrial production and exports are all up. The two most-wanted war crimes indictees, Radovan Karadizic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large. Their arrest is a necessary act of closure for the people of Bosnia, and I trust that it will not be deferred much longer. However, I am encouraged by the fact that 12 indictees have been transferred to The Hague this year through the cooperation of the authorities in Bosnia and in neighboring capitals, compared with none in the preceding nine years. As the international community"s high representative here, I have had my share of unsolicited advice - often tendered from afar and with little knowledge of conditions on the ground. I am not about to prescribe glib solutions for Iraq or Afghanistan or other failed states. But Bosnia has worked. This is a country that could have failed its own people and could have become an international economic and security liability. Instead it is a stable and increasingly viable democracy. Its lessons should not be ignored. |
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Looking for leadership in America by Richard Rodriguez PBS Online News Hour USA November 16 , 2005 In those days after Hurricane Katrina, many remembered Rudolph Giuliani. On Sep. 11, the clear blue sky had seemed to collapse, and the mayor of New York strode down the roiling street, barking orders, oblivious of his own safety. He embodied the resilience of his city and whatever measure one had previously taken of the man, that day it was clear. There was a leader. After Katrina, television cameras searched and searched but never found their Giuliani. And so the argument in the aftermath of the storm was about the failure of leadership. History does not always test the powerful. Potentially great leaders fade into obscurity because they do not preside over calamity. But pity the powerful who are tested by history - and fail. All of us can name people who are powerful in America. But who can name leaders from among their ranks? Whether in Washington or at the state capitol, whether on Wall Street or in some church hierarchy, there is power, not leadership. From Rome there is news that the Vatican intends to purge homosexuals from the ranks of clergy in order to avoid future pedophilia scandals, but the greatest scandal within the Church has been the failure of bishops as moral leaders. In corporate America, the CEO sells his stock before the plunge or rewards himself even as his company fails. We have grown so used to seeing corporate America in handcuffs we are becoming a soft and cynical people. We are entertained by the vulgarity of Donald Trump and his humiliation of the underling. The relationship of the powerful to the crowd is stuff of high drama. It was Shakespeare"s concern: the lives of kings and princes. We groundlings in the pit are not Prince Hal, but in becoming king, Hal learns to embody the character of his people. In a democracy, we do not elect leaders exactly. We elect representatives to work the will of the people. But we like to think that we appraise the character of those we elect. A leader emerges often in times of duress by finding the true meaning of his position and task: As president, as governor, as mayor. There is often a risk in leadership. The leader assumes the danger the crowd faces and more. The general leads his men into battle; the captain is the last to abandon the ship. In today"s America, men and women of the working class are paid to fight wars the powerful never risk. Princess Diana, dysfunctional, perhaps slightly mad, seemed to me a true leader, instinctive in ways that appropriate Queen Elizabeth will never be. Princess Diana could touch people - literally touch the wounded. And a nation recognized their suffering in her suffering. The ritual of hands touching hands is a staple of modern politics. It derives from an ancient belief that the anointed hand of the royal had healing power. But what happens when this ceremony is only theatrical and the powerful inhabit a world unconnected in a common fate? The failed Boston cardinal is awarded a palace in Rome; the ex-con has her TV show again. The floodwaters recede to reveal a network of contracts and cronies. My concern here is not with the falling popularity of Republicans or with the failure of Democrats to say what they stand for beyond an envy of power. My concern here is with the disconnection between power and leadership in America. In this time of the absence of leaders we groundlings in the pit might ask how we have come to have such kings and princes as these. |
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