The Brcko District- A successful american experiment

The Brčko District is in the northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, a neutral, self-governing administrative unit, under the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is formally part of both entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The captivating facts in regard to the Brčko District that made me choose this complex topic is on the one hand the autonomy of the Brčko District, with its own govern and rules, inside of Bosnia& Herzegovina which is if not unique at least rare and on the other side are the political parties divided on ethnicity criteria that work just well when they get in power, as for one single ethnicity.

The hypothesis that lies at the base of the further research paper is that an “American experiment has been successful because the political system and its institutions in charge with political decision power were implemented after a “democratic” model based on no ethnic roots and highly supervised. The regime itself was being supervisory and under close surveillance of the American-foreign influence on the District.

In order to prove the hypothesis presented above I will further present the background of the District Brčko in terms of history. The main questions I will focus on to clarify the Brčko District case will be: How was the District Brčko created? What was the context that led to its creation? When these events occur? Why it was necessary for Bosnia-Herzegovina to be established such a District? But also I will put emphasize in this research on its current state as it proves to be a successful American experiment. In this idea I will look at its political scene to regard to the party system which it is heavily ethnic based and still faces no problem in decision making.

History Background

So as to begin with, The Brčko District was at steak between Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Dayton Peace Accords negotiations. As an agreement could not be reach, but the Dayton Peace Accords had to be sign it was concluded that the Brčko District problem to be placed in the hands of an arbitration tribunal and decide upon later.

The context of this decision that later conducted the creation of District Brcko was the end of the tragic conflict in the region responsively the Bosnian War. This conflict had the main belligerents the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia, who were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia respectively. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia.

From this point on, the American factor will play the most important actor in the creation of District Brčko. Without going into details with the conflict as it does not makes the subject of this research, the outcome of the Bosnian War was the Washington Agreement which ended the war between Croats and Bosniaks and divided the combined territory held by Croat and Bosnian government forces into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After two years from the sign of the Dayton Peace Accords, in 1997 the same Arbitral Tribunal did not came with a solution. By this time the area of Brčko was having double jurisdiction from both Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia&Herzegovina. Still, what has been decided though was a Supervisor to head the operation in the area, fact that lead to the expanded authority of the Brčko Supervisor. The International Supervisor for Brčko is the representative of the international community in the Brčko District. From the first time when a Supervisor was named, it has been from USA, respectively Robert William Farrand on 7 March 1997.