ABSTRACT
This chapter is structured as follows. First, it briefly reviews the structural contradictions of the DPA and the international community’s attempt to overcompensate for these contradictions by creating a de facto protectorate. Second, it shows how this interventionist approach went hand in hand with an exploration of alternative statebuilding avenues, and in particular with an increasing focus on civil society development. Third, the chapter discusses the top-down, NGOfocused, technocratic nature of civil society building and its limitations. Finally, the chapter considers the increasing EU role in the country, showing how – despite the rhetoric on participation, inclusion, and domestic ownership – such a role furthers a narrow vision of civil society, instrumentally focused on NGOs. As a whole, Bosnia remains a state where internationally propped-up institutions are both inefficient and considered illegitimate by a large segment of the population.
