Open conflicts in the post-Yugoslav wars provided proponents (and users) of ethno-nationalist ideologies with plenty of experiences or "evidence" that "confirmed" all previous fears and concerns: "they" (another ethnic collective) "aimed at us". The war and post-war years were marked by the spread of narratives, which make the abstract and empty ideology of ethnicity very concrete.

As an epilogue to the failure of the initiative, the EU is now facing a political challenge in the context of constitutional reform, for which it is ill-prepared: amendment of the electoral law of BiH following the ruling of the Constitutional Court in the case of Ljubić. At the same time, the express support of the Croatian Government for the ethno-nationalist agenda of the HDZ BiH poses a serious threat to the EU's unity in its approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the context of constitutional reform. The EU, which wants to avoid any discussion about constitutional reform, now stands with its back to the wall.It looks like, after the parliamentary elections in October 2018, the EU will be forced to face the country's biggest constitutional crisis since the end of the war and the failure of its initiative in BiH.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation presents the study "Media and Shrinking Space in BiH: Silenced Alternative Voices" by the authors Prof. Dr. med. Lejla Turčilo and dr. Belma Buljubašić. The study is a continuation of last year's publication "Shrinking Spaces in the Western Balkans," which deals with the global phenomenon of shrinking space actors in civil society. In this issue, the authors focus on this phenomenon in relation to the media.

Diese Ausgabe des Perspectives Magazins beschäftigt sich mit dem Captured-States-Phänomen - Korruption und Nepotismus und die Auswirkungen auf den Rechtsstaat und das leben der Bürger/innen Bosnien-Herzegowinas. AUch die Vergabe von Arbeitsplätzen an taugliche, aber nicht kompetente Personen, der Einfluß von Politik auf Bildung, Pressefreiheit, Nationalismus als politisches Instrument der Machterhaltung und andere Themen werden in dieser Ausgabe genauer beleuchtet. Das Magazin ist in englischer Sprache verfasst.

Ova publikacija je nastala u okviru projekta “Advocacy NGOs Networks for Sustainable Use of Energy and Natural Resources in the Western Balkans and Turkey – ETNAR”, u kojem je hbs jedan od partnera. Glavni cilj publikacije je pomoći nevladinim organizacijama iz Bosne i Hercegovina, Hrvatske, Srbije, Crne Gore, Turske, Makedonije, Albanije i Kosova u zaštiti okoliša i zagovaranju održivog upravljanja energetskim i prirodnim resursima. Pravni instrumenti mogu biti moćan instrument u aktivnostima zagovaranja organizacija civilnog društva ukoliko one znaju kako i kada da ih koriste u svojim zagovaračkim kampanjama.

The implementation process of the reform agenda has shown that the leading international actors in BiH are well able to push the country towards a sustainable reform course. This has primarily demonstrated the application of strict conditionality by the IMF. The fact that the EU initiative has so far produced only limited results was not due to the fact that a policy of conditionality in BiH does not work or can function, as many EU officials regularly claim, but because of the lack of political will of the EU, conditionality and consistency strictly apply.

Wenn der Staat tiefgreifende politische, wirtschaftliche und ideologische Veränderungen vornimmt, kann seine Abhängigkeit von einer internationalen Umgebung wachsen. Genau das ist vor 25 Jahren in fast allen post-kommunistischen Staaten geschehen. Die Notwendigkeit für internationale Modelle in Systemen, die einen politischen Pluralismus und Demokratie als Staatsform eingeführt haben und sich nach Außen hin öffnen, öffnen auch Einflüssen von Außen das Tor. Die Artikel in dieser Ausgabe erzählen verschiedene Geschichten über die Herausforderungen der internationalen Interventionen in  Albanien, Bosnien und Herzegowina, Kroatien, Mazedonien und Serbien.

        427/5000   The booklet "Shrinking Spaces in the Western Balkans" deals with the global phenomenon of restricting the room for maneuver for actors in civil society, which unfortunately is becoming increasingly noticeable in our region as well. Here you can read great analyzes by journalists, activists and academic staff from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia.

The stories of Srebrenica are stories of genocide and war suffering, of the importance of collective memory, but also of life and what post-war life is like, in all its hardship, yet also beauty. These are stories about people who lived and who still live in Srebrenica, their life paths and destinies, but also factual notes on Srebrenica, the genocide and post-war developments in this region. The notes on Srebrenica and from Srebrenica are a specific non-fiction reading for all those who love, but also think and live Srebrenica.

Approaches to understanding the meaning of accession to the European Union vary significantly among the post-Yugoslavcountries, depending on the size and complexity of problems these countries encounter in their prolonged transition todemocracy, free market economy, and rule of law. While one of them – Slovenia – was at least partially prepared to take advantageof a broader market, freedom of trade and movement, and the available forms of support for economic development, for someothers the process of accession to the EU, indeed the conditionality, which was part and parcel thereof, has been an importantdriving force for changes in their legal and institutional systems. Furthermore, there are countries like Bosnia and Herzegovinaand Macedonia, for which the relationship with the EU goes beyond legal adjustments and upgrading the institutional capacity,reaching all the way to the very constitution of the polity.