Publications

Significant changes have taken place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent weeks. In early May, High Representative Christian Schmidt, who served as the representative of the principal international body overseeing state-building, resigned. The Office of the High Representative was originally entrusted by the members of the Peace Implementation Council with extensive oversight and monitoring responsibilities, but over the past few decades its role has gradually been stripped of much of its authority. Schmidt’s resignation was preceded by pressure from the United States, which has not only brought about changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina but may also affect relations between the United States and the European Union.

Despite its rich historical background, there have been only few case studies of the pre-1914 history of humanitarian action written by historians based on unpublished archival sources. The existing case studies, on the one hand, are transatlantic centric, i.e. scholars have neglected researching of the humanitarian past of Eastern Europe.