Challenges of the Integration Process of Bosnia and Herzegovina towards the NATO Membership

This paper aims to analyze the challenges and the political determination of the NATO integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study focused on the concerns, aspirations, reforms and the political barrier that are result of complex structure of semi-autonomous entities, e.g. the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Agreement which created these entities was a very welcome achievement by the international community back in the 1995. However, with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ambition to accede to both NATO and the European Union, things have changed and the complex political structure brought the state into political difficulties. The Bosnian political and intellectual elites have continuously pledged their commitment to perform the necessary reforms to acquire the NATO membership. Although NATO membership represents one of its foreign policy priorities, Bosnia and Herzegovina still lags behind other countries in the region and has a long way ahead to fulfill indispensable NATO requirements. Moreover the integration process has entered a new decisive phase in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2010, which demands the involvement of many state and civil society actors, as well as the participation of the public. The society in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the new phase must be introduced with the positive and negative sides of the NATO membership. Many studies and surveys which have been conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina showed a result that the public sector in not well informed about the NATO integration, and often a subject of propaganda.