Twenty eight years ago there was a brutal war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between the three main ethnic groups in the country as a part of the bracke-up of Yugoslavia  (Balazs, 2008). This thesis analyses how the OHR has contributed to the reconciliation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina by looking at academic articles, information from local actors, analysing the local debate and semistructured interviews within the international community in BiH. Primarily, Bar-Tals conditions for reconciliation are used to measure how the OHR has contributed to the reconciliation process. It is clear that OHR has contributed positively to the reconciliation process however the process has been slow and some consider the reconciliation process to go in the wrong direction right now. To push the reconciliation process forward is explicitly not a part of the OHRs mandate however there is a lack of actors working with it and OHR has been a suitable actor to do so. However, the OHR have lost respect because they have not held people accountable when violating the OHR decisions. Additionally, the OHR is seen as anti-Serb by the Bosnian Serbs, even though it is unrightfully so this has resulted in there decisions occasionally leading to further polarisation between the ethnic groups. Thus, the OHR may not be the most suitable actor to push BiH forward in the reconciliation process in the future, however they are still needed to make sure that the peace agreement is followed to avoid another war. There is already extensive research on the reconciliation process in BiH and the OHR separately however there is very limited research on how the OHR have worked with the reconciliation process even though the research is relevant considering that there is an discussion on about how much influence the OHR should have in BiH and if they should remain in BiH (Hayat Media BiH, 2023). As well as to give the OHR an opportunity to learn from perilous mistakes and perfect their way of working with reconciliation.

This essay investigates the post-war international intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Treaty was welcomed as the first multilateral agreement amongst countries since the end of the cold war, including Russia. The treaty sought not only to end a war but wrote the Bosnian constitution. We see examples of state-building through international intervention in other parts of the world post-9/11 (Afghanistan, Iraq). The state-building actions in Bosnia was the first multilateral action after the cold-war it is therefore interesting to research the measures that were taken and to follow-up and investigate if it was a success or a failure. Bosnia today is falling behind other neighboring countries,  economically and democratically speaking. Neighboring Croatia has just recently become a new member state of the EU, many scholars along with member states of EU and the International Community agree that Bosnia should aim to reach the same goal as Croatia in order to ensure political and economical stability. However there seems to be conflicting agendas between the International Community and the local politicians. The essay will focus on the effects of the international intervention through state-building operations in Bosnia and how the international community took upon itself a major responsibility and the results of those efforts till today.