Daily: Are the Balkans on the brink of war?

The Bunker

Over 130,000 people were killed in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, with most deaths concentrated in Bosnia. But 26 years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, nationalist tensions are re-emerging between Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Bosniak President Bakir Izetbegovic. So are we on the brink of another war in the Balkans - and did it ever end in the first place? Jelena Sofronijevic talks to journalist Una Hajdari and Professor James Ker-Lindsay about what we get wrong on ethnicity, peacekeeping, and Serbia’s “strongman” siblingship with Vladimir Putin.

• “The ethnic differences that are taken into account by Bosnia's constitution are the same ones that will cause its downfall.” – Una Hajdari
• “Russia is playing a spoiling tactic in the Balkans.” - James Ker-Lindsay
• “Dodik is clever enough to know an overt declaration of independence would fail. He'd need to rely on Serbia - but they'd avoid supporting him outright.” - James Ker-Lindsay
• “This is Bosnia's curse - all levels of its government have an ethnic quota, so it's hard to stray from any politics outside of that path.” - Una Hajdari
• “Both Bosnian Serbs and Bosniaks see each other as a fundamental threat to each other's existence.” - James Ker-Lindsay

Written and presented by Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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