Bosnia’s Milorad Dodik and His Enablers

But the day-to-day headlines obscure a bigger, simpler truth.

Dodik remains a threat to the central feature of the Dayton Peace Accords - peace in Bosnia, and thus the whole of the Western Balkans - because for a decade and a half he has faced virtually no meaningful consequence for his increasingly extremist positions.

Inaction should shame Europe

Dragan Covic in Belgrade, Serbia. Photo: EPA-EFE/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC

In that time, Dodik and his regime have gone from "merely" negating the genocide in Bosnia and undermining the rule of law and democratic governance in the country and in the RS entity, to brutalising peaceful protestors and openly conspiring with the Kremlin (and Belgrade) to create a parallel security apparatus to realise their oft-stated goal of secession.

Dodik and his associates have moved from words to deeds, from threats to execution because they have been allowed to do so.

The SNSD has been allowed to behave in this fashion by nominally "pro-Bosnian" political parties and leaders who have, time and again, willingly formed governing coalitions with the party for the sake of their own personal and political interests.

Likewise, Dodik and his bloc have been emboldened by the fact that at every turn, with each new crisis, the European Union, in particular, has pursued the politics of appeasement with Banja Luka. Brussels and its representatives in Bosnia have never demonstrated the capacity, interest, or will to confront or oppose Dodik. Or, for that matter, his long-time associate Dragan Covic of the Croat Democratic Union, HDZ, who is again backing his most recent stunt.

The US, to its tremendous credit, has remained an outspoken champion of Bosnia's stability, security, and...