Through "autocracy" to democracy?
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (1999-2002)
Kick-off event for the research project
The Dayton Peace Agreement brought an end to the Bosnian war that raged from 1992-1995. In order to implement its civilian provisions, the international community established the office of a High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time. This research project, based at the Franz Vranitzky Chair for European Studies at the University of Vienna and funded by the Anniversary Fund of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, is dedicated to reconstructing the policies and communications of the first Austrian High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch (1999-2002). As a representative of the United Nations, he was nevertheless endowed with „autocratic“ powers in this peace and democratisation process. On the one hand, the aim is to provide a dense description of the transformation process with its interwoven spheres of action and communication and, on the other hand, to find answers to urgent questions about international intervention policy in crisis and war zones of the present.