Washington, Erdut and Dayton: Negotiating and Implementing Peace in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

Three peace agreements ended the conflict in the former Yugoslavia: the Washington Agreement, which created the Muslim-Croat Federation; the Erdut Agreement, which peacefully reintegrated the last Serb-held territory into Croatia; and the Dayton Agreement, which established a detailed framework for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.The United States played the decisive role in all three agreements.Why did we succeed where others failed?Because we correctly identified the cause of the war and backed diplomacy with force.The war in the former Yugoslavia had its roots in the recent, not the distant, past.Yugoslavia was constituted in the aftermath of World War I as a multinational state.In the aftermath of World War II, it was reconstituted as a communist federal state of six republics.The collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War dissolved the glue that held these republics together.In 1990, Slovenia and Croatia tried to renegotiate the terms of the federation.When that failed, because Serbia would not go along, Slovenia and Croatia moved to secede.The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), which was the only real federal institution remaining after the Communist Party fragmented along national lines, tried to resist any secession by Slovenia and Croatia.But Serbia, after initially aligning itself with the JNA in an attempt to hold the country together, then decided to let the Slovenes and Croatians go, as long as it could hold onto the Serb areas of Croatia-the Krajina, in the western part of the country; Slavonia, along the border with Yugoslavia; and an area south-east of the capital, Zagreb.Local Serbs in Croatia, who feared the revival of Croatian nationalism, organized a rebellion in these areas, declared their independence from Croatia, and announced the establishment of an entity called the Republika Srpska * United States Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia.He has been actively involved in the Croatia and Bosnia peace process.He played a major role in ending the 1993-94 Muslim-Croat war and in facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance to Bosnia.He helped negotiate the 1994 Washington Agreement establishing the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and was a co-sponsor of the peace process in Croatia that produced several agreements between the Croatian government and the Krajina Serbs.He was also the co-mediator (with Thorvald Stoltenberg) of the Eastern Slavonia negotiations.Previously, he was a Senior Advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he was distinguished for his efforts on behalf of the Iraqi Kurds and on behalf of the human rights in Pakistan.

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