Transitional justice and its discontents: socioeconomic justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the limits of international intervention

Lai, Daniela (2016) Transitional justice and its discontents: socioeconomic justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the limits of international intervention. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 10 (3). pp. 361-381. ISSN 1750-2977

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Abstract

The incorporation of socioeconomic concerns into transitional justice has traditionally, as a result of prevailing liberal notions about dealing with the past, been both conceptually and practically difficult. This article demonstrates and accounts for these difficulties through the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country which has been characterized by a complex transition process and a far-reaching international intervention, encompassing transitional justice and peacebuilding as well as political and economic reforms. Examining the limits of international intervention in Bosnia and the marginalization of socioeconomic justice issues, the article analyses the events surrounding the protests that broke out in February 2014, and the ensuing international engagement with the protest movement. Faced with a broad-based civic movement calling for socioeconomic justice, the international community struggled to understand its claims as justice issues, framing them instead as problems to be tackled through reforms aimed at completing Bosnia’s transition towards a market economy. The operation of peacebuilding and transitional justice within the limits of neoliberal transformation is thus instrumental in explaining how and why socioeconomic justice issues become marginalized, as well as accounting for the expression of popular discontent where justice becomes an object of contestation and external intervention.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/risb20/current
Additional Information:	© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Date Deposited:	06 Oct 2017 14:44
Last Modified:	14 Sep 2024 07:15
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/84498

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