The Contact Group on (and in)Bosnia
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300207 |
| Published date | 01 June 1998 |
| Author | Helen Leigh-Phippard |
| Date | 01 June 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
HELEN
LEIGH-PHIPPARD
The
Contact
Group
on
(and
in)Bosnia
An
exercise
in
conflict
mediation?
IN
THE
SPRING OF
1994
A
NEW
ACTOR
APPEARED
on
the
scene
in
inter-
national
efforts
to
mediate
the conflict
in Bosnia.
The
Contact
Group
on
Bosnia
took
up
where
the Europe
Union
(EU),
the Conference
(now
Organization) on
Security
and
Co-operation
in
Europe,
and
the
Unit-
ed
Nations
had
failed
in
bringing
the
warring
parties
to
the
negotiating
table.
It
differed
from
previous
mediation
efforts
in
that
it provided
a
deliberately informal
framework
for
mediation.
Thus,
it
necessarily
benefited
from
the
outset
from
a
more
flexible
and
confidential
mode
of
operation.
Nevertheless
Contact
Group
mediation
stalled
just
a few
months
after it
began,
when
its
peaceplan
was
rejected
by
the
Bosnian
Serbs,
and
a
stalemate
lasting
more
than
a
year
ensued.
The
process was
reinvigorated
only
after
the United
States
showed
a
unilateral
commit-
ment
to
conflict resolution.
This
article
is
concerned
with
the
role
played
in
the
Bosnian
peace
process
by
the
Contact
Group
from
its
creation
in April
1994
to
the
conclusion
of
the
Dayton
peace
talks in
November
1995.
A
discussion
of
Contact
Group
activity
throughout
the period
is
followed
by
an
investigation
of
the
reasons
behind,
and
the
effectiveness
of,
its
media-
tion.
While
collective
mediation
through
the
Group
had
certain
advan-
Lecturer
in
International
Relations, School
ofEnglish
andAmerican
Studies,
University
of
Sussex
at
Brighton.
I
would
like
to
thank
colleagues
at
the
University
of
Sussex
for
their
advice
and
encouragement
during
the
progress
ofthis
research
and
the
anonymous
reviewer
of
International
Journal
for
his/her
helpful
and
constructive
comments on
this
paper
in
particular.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring
1998
The
Contact
Group
tages,
it
also
brought'with
it
costs, associated
in
particular
with
the
problems
faced
by
the
Group
in
striving
to
maintain
unity.
The
collec-
tive
mediation
role
was
supported
by
a
second
role,
that
of
managing
relations
between
the
key
international
actors involved
in
Balkan
diplomacy
and
establishing
their positions
in
the post-cold
war
inter-
national order.
The
strength
of
commitment
of
Contact
Group
mem-
bers
to
ensuring
the
appearance
of
public unity
was
at
least
as
impor-
tant
as
the
conflict
mediation
role,
perhaps
more
so.
A
BRIEF
HISTORY
OF
THE
CONTACT
GROUP
The
Contact
Group
was
established
in April
1994,
amid
renewed
international
concern about
Bosnia
following
the
shelling
of
the
Sara-
jevo
marketplace,
to
try
to
revive
the
international
peace
process
which
had
stalled
a
year earlier.
It
was
composed
of
diplomatic
representatives
of
five
states
-
France,
Germany,
Russia,
the
United Kingdom,
and
the
United
States
-
who
have
met
regularly
at
both
ministerial
and
official
levels
since
1994
and
have
assumed
co-ordination
of
European
Union,
Russian,
and United
States
diplomatic
initiatives
in
the
former
Yugoslavia.
The
initiative
for
the
Group
originated
in
discussions
between
the
co-chairmen
of
the
International
Conference
on
the
Former
Yugo-
slavia
(ICFY),
David
Owen
and
Thorvald
Stoltenberg,
and
United
States
representatives
at
a
time
when
the
Americans
were
showing
a
greater
willingness
to
be
fully
involved
in
brokering
peace
in
the
region.
The
United
States
had
mooted
proximity
talks
on
a
territorial
settlement
in
Bosnia,
with
the
direct
involvement
of
the
United
States
and
the
Russian
Federation,
to
reinforce
and
possibly
substitute
for
EU-
United Nations
mediation attempts,
which
were
increasingly seen
as
inadequate.
But
some
means
was
needed
to
facilitate
this approach.
1
There
appears
to have
been
broad agreement
between
the
ICFY
co-
chairs
and the
United
States
that
an
appropriate
framework
would
be
a
small
confidential
negotiating
group
which
would
include the
Unit-
ed
States
and
Russia,
but
which
would
also
comprise
the
United
King-
dom,
France,
and
Germany
as
the
three
key
West
European
actors
in
1
For
analysis
of
previous mediation
efforts,
see
Nimet
Beriker
Atiyos,
'Mediating
regional
conflicts
and
negotiating
flexibility:
peace
efforts
in
Bosnia
Herzegovina,'
Annals
of
the
American
Academy
of
Political
and
Social
Science
542(November
1995),
186-7.
For
a
detailed
account
of
EU
mediation
in
the
region,
see
David Owen,
Balkan Odyssey
(London:
Victor
Gollancz
1995).
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring
1998
307
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