Agonistisk fred i Bosnien och Hercegovina, en möjlighet?

Sammanfattning: When the Bosnian civil war ended in 1995 by signing the Dayton-peace agreement, the international community imposed so-called liberal peacebuilding, known as the top-down approach. Since this proceeding had brought unsuccessful results, the number of nongovernmental organizations began to increase in order to build a sustainable and more inclusive peace in post-Dayton BiH. This thesis examines the civil society efforts and contributions to peacebuilding, by applying agonistic peace theory, which seeks to uncover the potential transformation of relations from former enemies to legitimate adversaries. In the context of multiethnic- Bosnia, this theory helps to discover how civil society activism contributes to coexistence, tolerance, and acceptance between the three ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks. The analysis is carried out as a qualitative case study of agonistic peace by realizing nine semi-structured interviews with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) located in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results, derived by thematic analysis, have shown a tangible presence of agonistic reasoning within NGO activities as well as projects. This reflects among others, in promoting the interaction between the three ethnically different groups in BiH. Lastly, the findings have also indicated the lack of political elites’ support in transforming the relations, thus, limiting the domain within which the NGOs can operate.