The speeches of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina: cosmopolitanism in practice?

Abstract

Summary

This paper tries to answer the question how the High Representative (HR) for Bosnia and

Herzegovina (BiH) expressed cosmopolitan notions in his public speeches between 1995 and

2015 and what changes in these expressions can be seen after the general elections of 2006.

Four cosmopolitan notions are especially relevant as drivers in the peace process that started

with the Dayton Agreement of 1995: ‘identity and belonging’, ‘empathy’, ‘human rights’ and

‘democracy’. These notions are described as a challenge for the HR, whose main task is to

monitor the civil implementation of the peace agreement and to promote human rights.

Cosmopolitanism was implicitly referred to in the public speeches of the HR. Placed in a

historical context these speeches show that after 2006 this reference to the four cosmopolitan

notions changed. It is concluded that:

- Until 2006 the HR appealed to the connection with the international community, thus

stimulating a feeling of belonging to the people of the world. After the elections of 2006 he

tended to refer more to the European or pan Atlantic community. In both periods he

occasionally also referred to the position of BiH in the region, but not to the cosmopolitan world

community. Over the whole period the HR did not unambiguously define the landscape or place

with which the citizens of BiH could identify.

- Especially in the first years after the war, the HR showed empathy is his speeches, for instance

by sharing common memories. He also showed compassion, but in this he seemed to struggle to

define his position in relationship to the people of BiH;

- The HR often and explicitly promoted democracy and referred to many specific cases of human

rights, especially in the years before the elections of 2006.

For this study twenty-one public speeches of the HR for BiH were studied, with a focus

on the message and on the wording used to express this message. The method used was

inspired by the Critical Discourse Analysis although a full application of this method fell outside

the scope of this study. In addition to these speeches, secondary sources and a few primary

sources were used to describe the historical and cosmopolitan context.